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Overview

This small library served for many years as a functioning library for the City of Napa, the gift of local banker George E. Goodman. It was completed in 1901 to the designs of Napa, CA, architect Luther Turton.

Building History

Bank president George Edmond Goodman (born 07/05/1823 in Rochester, NY-d. 06/18/1917 in Napa, CA) provided the land and building funds to erect this late Richardsonian Romanesque library in Napa, CA. He made it a condition of his bequest that the building had to be used by the City of Napa as a library, or its ownership would revert to his heirs. It became utilized by the Napa County Historical Society and Napa County Landmarks during the 1970s. In 2025, only the historical society continued to use the former Goodman Library and it maintained a research library there, fulfilling the terms of Goodman's bequest.

Building Notes

The Goodman Library had a symmetrical facade facing 1st Street, with three bays, the center of which projected in front of the other two. The central bay was topped by a square turret. Architect Luther M. Turton (1862-1925) clad the exterior with coursed ashlar. The stone was locally sourced in the Napa area.

Alteration

The Goodman Library has undergone seismic retrofitting on three occasions, during the 1970s, 2004 and between 2014 and 12/2017. As noted by structural engineer Chris Jonas of ZFA Structural Engineers in 02/2019: "The Goodman Library underwent two retrofits prior to the Napa Earthquake. In the 1970s, a tie-rod diaphragm system was added above the roof in an apparent attempt to anchor and support the stone parapets, mitigating one of the most significant hazards to public safety. In 2004, a more extensive retrofit and rehabilitation was performed by the City of Napa in advance of its upcoming URM retrofit ordinance. The retrofit design was based on the 1997 Uniform Code for Building Conservation (UCBC) with a design base shear of 0.10g (ASD) and out-of-plane wall anchorage demands of approximately 0.66g and 1.06g (ULT) at the 2nd floor and roof, respectively. Comparing these loads to the actual seismic event in 2014, the acceleration for the building was likely between 0.90g and 1.20g (based on a ground motion monitoring device less than ¼ mile away) (FEMA P-1024). The ASCE 7-10 design base earthquake acceleration is 1.35g for the building. Using a response modification factor of R = 1.5 for an ordinary plain masonry shear wall structure, the resulting design acceleration is 0.90g, though the California Historic Building Code (CHBC) permits further reduction. The 2004 retrofit performed quite well during the 2014 seismic event, despite the overall ragged appearance of the building immediately following the earthquake: the transverse concrete shear walls exhibited little to no signs of distress, as did the roof and floor diaphragms and wall anchors. The historic stone walls, which acted as the building’s shear walls in the longitudinal direction and at the rear of the building in the transverse direction, performed as expected, dissipating energy by cracking along joint lines. The focus of the post-earthquake damage investigation was the tower, where the partial collapse allowed large stones to fall 30 feet to the sidewalk below." (See Chris Jonas, Structure Magazine.org, "Historic Goodman Library Repair and Retrofit in the Aftermath of the 2014 Napa Earthquake," published 02/2019, accessed 06/20/2025.)

To remedy the damage, particularly in the central stone tower, ZFA Structural Engineers undertook the following steps: "The most extreme exterior damage occurred at the stone tower, however extensive cracking was noted throughout the brittle stone walls. Though the entry tower rotated in plan and a corner partially collapsed, it fortunately remained upright. Additional damage observed included: cracked and loosened mortar; cracked stones; and stones that had become dislodged and permanently displaced. Rebuilding of the tower began with the removal and cataloging of each stone as it was dismantled down to roof level. A vertical steel space truss, was added to the interior core of the tower. Tower stones were stitched together with adhesive anchors around the steel truss. During reinstallation, some stones were deemed too damaged for reuse or were missing. Fortunately, a nearby historic building recently completed a remodel and had leftover stones available, allowing the tower to be completely rebuilt from local, historically accurate materials. Segments of the stone wall that were displaced and or significantly cracked were disassembled and rebuilt. Other damaged areas were repointed and grout injected with historically accurate lime-based grout." (See ZFA Structural Engineers.com, "Historic Goodman Library," accessed 06/20/2025.)

The architect for this $1.7 million seismic renovation was Napa Design Partners, LLP. Richmond, CA-based Alten Construction served as the general contractor for the retrofit, completing their work in 12/2017. (See Alten Construction.com, "Historic Goodman Library Earthquake Damage Repair," accessed 06/20/2025.)

The Goodman Library restoration of 2014-2017 won at least five local, regional and national design awards. These included: American Public Works Association, Project of the Year Award, NorCal—Historic Restoration/Preservation, 2018; American Public Works Association, Project of the Year Award, National Historical Restoration/Preservation, 2018; California Preservation Foundation, Award of Merit—Preservation, Earthquake Damage Repair and Rehabilitation, 2018; Structural Engineers Association of Northern California (SEAONC), Excellence in Structural Engineering—Award of Merit—Historic Preservation, 2018; and Napa County Landmarks, Awards of Merit—Preservation or Restoration, 2018.