Completed in 1878, the Napa County Courthouse is a High Victorian Italianate government building designed by Samuel and Joseph Newsom with local architect Ira Gilchrist. Built of brick and stone on a concrete foundation, the two-story courthouse is distinguished by its arched windows, bracketed cornice, and a central tower capped with a bulb-shaped cupola, a feature that dominated Napa’s skyline until its removal in 1931. Decorative elements such as block modillions, dentils, and marble interior finishes convey its civic importance while reflecting the exuberant design tendencies of the era.
For more than a century, the courthouse housed courtrooms, jury rooms, and county offices. The larger Courthouse Plaza complex grew to include the 1916 Hall of Records and later additions, yet the 1878 building remains the site’s centerpiece and the only known courthouse designed by the Newsom brothers. Listed in the National Register of Historic Places in 1992, the courthouse was later rehabilitated after sustaining earthquake damage, earning a 2019 Preservation Design Award for Restoration from the California Preservation Foundation.
