A Home Built to Be Remembered

Built in 1906 by E.W. Doughty—a master craftsman who shaped much of Napa’s early architecture—this house was more than a family home. It was a showcase, designed to catch the light just right as travelers made their way up Calistoga Avenue, heading toward the vineyards. With its finely carved woodwork and elegant lines, it stood as a quiet testament to Doughty’s skill—a living portfolio framed in glass and stone. Over the decades, it stayed in the family, its rooms filled with warmth, laughter, and a rhythm that never quite left.

That rhythm is still here. Since opening as one of Napa’s first bed and breakfasts in the 1970s, Cabernet House has passed through the hands of innkeepers who added their own layers of color and care—deep burgundy walls, ivy-wrapped fences, pastel nods to Scandinavian artists, and furniture chosen as much for comfort as for charm. Each room tells its own story. Some are soft and romantic, others bright and nostalgic, all carrying a quiet sense of history that doesn’t need to be spoken to be felt. This is a place shaped by time, memory, and people who believed in the beauty of staying somewhere that means something.