We just received our Christmas 2009 Pottery Barn catalog.  My daughter saw all the pretty Christmas photos and thought it would make great material for a collage.  One of the many pictures she cut out was of a very nicely holiday decorated home that my daughter was convinced was located in our neighborhood.  The house is actually featured on the Pottery Barn front cover.  I looked closely at the picture of the house and saw that above the front door was a placard that read “Captain Andrew Sampson House 1850″.  Ok, so who was Captain Andrew Sampson and where is this house located?

Like any good detective, my first step was Google and from there I learned that yes the house was built in 1850 and it is located at 1157 Division St, Napa, California.  Google maps also lists a business at that address, a company called “Benefits Plus”.   In fact, Google Maps street view has a great shot of the home:

captain andrew sampson house

Ok, so now that I know where the house was located, I needed to find out just who was Captain Andrew Sampson?

I emailed the Napa Public Works Department and they were nice enough to send me the “Historic Resources Inventory” which notes among other things, the description and significance of this particular property:

The Andrew Sampson House is an excellent example of the 19th century practice in Napa of creating a two story house by raising the original one story cottage and building a new first floor. The original cottage, now the second floor, is believed to have been built in 1850, soon after Stephen Broadhurst bought the land near the Napa River from Joseph P. Thompson, one of Napa’s first settlers. Andrew Sampson, originally from Sweden, purchased the property in 1871. He had an active role in the Napa River trade as he ran a tow boat line, operated a schooner between Napa and San Francisco and had a drayage business in Napa Valley. The house raising took place c.1900. The house stands on a fieldstone foundation and is frame with shiplap siding. Note the variation in window moldings on the first and second floors. More recent additions are a wing to the rear and extension in the gable end and. the front porch and steps. The house remained in the family until 1974. Two Sequoias in the front yard were planted by Andrew Sampson’s wife, Olinda, in the 1870s.

Wow.  Cool.  So the first story was actually an addition to the house.  That’s a pretty neat fact.

The fact sheet that they sent also included an old photo taken of the house. It’s pretty grainy, but you can tell even from this photo that a lot of work has been done to the house:

1157 Division Street

So anyhow that’s all I’ve been able to find out about the Captain Andrew Sampson House 1850.   If you have any more information, be sure to share it.