Longtime Napa Mayor's Home Up For Federal Historic Designation

NAPA, CA — The residence of a longtime Napa mayor has been nominated for inclusion on the National Register of Historic Places and will be considered for the federal historic designation Friday by the California State Historical Resources Commission.

The Charles Trower House at 1042 Seminary St. was the residence of Napa Mayor Charles Trower during his term in office. The home was built in 1905 and he and his wife, May, purchased it in 1908. The residence— a two-story foursquare with elements of Queen Anne and Craftsman architecture— is significant as the only remaining building surviving from Trower’s tenure, as his principal workplace as mayor, Napa’s city hall, no longer stands.

Trower moved to California as a child and attended the local Oak Mound School in Napa. He went on to study law and once he became an attorney, opened a practice in 1899 on First Street in Downtown Napa. Trower was active in the community and served as a school trustee, on the Presbyterian Church board, and on the Napa Goodman Library board. He was a Mason, an Elk and a member of the Rotary Club.

Trower was elected mayor in 1920 and served in the position for a decade. He was principally involved with improvements to Napa’s water system and the city waterfront. As mayor, he worked to complete the $600,000 Conn Valley municipal water project in 1923. After it was complete the community credited him with securing Napa’s water supply by negotiating a reasonable rate from its builder (his brother-in-law).

Mayor was a part-time position, and Trower retired from his law practice in 1923 to become vice president of the First National Bank. A leader of the local business community, Trower took over management of the California Glove Factory (an important Napa employer) in 1927 after the business began to struggle, while he was also serving as mayor and vice president of the bank. Trower was also one of the main proponents of the 1930 demolition of Napa’s historic Chinatown as part of what was promoted as an initiative to clean up the Napa River. The yacht club that was supposed to replace Chinatown was never completed.

When Trower became president of the bank in 1930, he did not run for reelection. At that time, the Napa Register summed up his career as mayor, crediting him with having the roads paved, new police and fire stations construction, and developing an electrolier (electric streetlight) system without raising taxes.

His wife, May Trower, was active in the charities and social clubs that prominent women typically led during that era. For decades, she frequently hosted the Napa Study Club at their home, performing musically or presenting on a political or academic topic. The Trowers enlarged the house at Seminary and Clay with the one-story addition to the south elevation about 1920. This addition roughly doubled the size of the living room and the project is likely to have been undertaken in order to accommodate the large groups the couple frequently hosted.

Charles Trower died in 1941. After May Trower’s death a few years later, her siblings Margaret Trower and A. Kempkey were the executors of her will.

The house is among nine nominations for federal historic designation and six nominations for state historic designation the commission will consider at its meeting that begins at 9 a.m. Friday. The public can participate in the meeting in person in San Francisco or virtually.

All nominations and photographs of properties under consideration are available online.

Placement on the National Register can help bring positive attention to a historic place and affords a property the honor of inclusion in the nation’s list of cultural resources worthy of preservation. This can provide a degree of protection from adverse effects resulting from federally funded or licensed projects. Registration also provides a number of incentives for the preservation of historic properties, including special building codes to facilitate the restoration of historic structures and certain tax advantages.