American settlers arrived in the upper valley in the 1850s, drawn by deep, well-watered soil and a long growing season. The little town that grew up around a store and a church took the mountain's name, and it was incorporated as the City of St. Helena in 1876. From the start it was an agricultural town first — wheat, cattle, and orchards as much as grapes — set in the narrow, fertile stretch of valley between the Mayacamas range and the Vaca hills, where the road north ran on toward Calistoga and the mountain.
Two older landmarks anchor the town's history. North of the center, the Bale Grist Mill — a water-powered flour mill built in 1846, with a towering red waterwheel — still stands as a state historic park, a relic of the valley's pre-wine farming days. And at the edge of town rises Greystone, a vast stone cellar finished in 1889 and now home to the Culinary Institute of America's western campus. Along Main Street, the squat stone storefronts of the 1880s give St. Helena the look it is known for: a small, solid, hand-built town in the middle of the vines.
Why People Visit St Helena
St. Helena offers Napa Valley at its most walkable and unhurried — a real town in the middle of the vineyards, with deep wine heritage, a literary past, and the mountain overhead. Visitors come for the tasting country and the scenery and stay for the small-town stone streets and the easy pace. It is refined without being precious, and beautiful in every season.
