Historic church damaged in 2014 Napa earthquake, landmark restored 10 years later

NAPA — Napa marked the 10th anniversary of the earthquake that struck the city on Saturday. Despite all the damage, the city has learned some important lessons.

Napa has been through a lot. From the flooding that hit downtown in 2005 to the devastating Atlas wildfires in 2017. Then on August 24, 2014, an earthquake struck south of Napa centered between Napa and American Canyon. The quake was a magnitude 6.0 and caused an estimated $1 billion in damage in this area of ​​wine country.

Early Sunday morning, at First Presbyterian Church in Napa, the landmark built in 1874 was literally shaking.

“It really woke us up, and we knew there was going to be damage,” said Jane Roscoe, the church’s director of family ministry. “So we ran down to town, and when we got there, we saw that the front window — our ‘Jesus Window’ — was on the ground. Inside, the damage was extensive. The speakers were down. There was a lot of debris everywhere.”

It took two years and $2 million to restore the church’s main sanctuary, but of course it wasn’t the only building that suffered serious damage. Tons of bricks from the historic center building fell onto a parked car. Fortunately, no one was inside at the time. Today, there are still signs of the damage from that day.

Across the street, the old courthouse has been completely restored after part of its facade was shaken by the earthquake. Across the street, the top corner of the Carpe Diem restaurant has ended up on the sidewalk. Everything has been repaired with colored bricks to match the color perfectly.

From her workplace across the street, Janice Chaidez still remembers the horror of that morning.

“I mean, I just sat on the bed and my husband said, ‘Don’t move, we’re having an earthquake,’ and all I heard was everything crashing, everything thudding. I was thinking, ‘Oh my God, is our house still here? Are we going to be able to get downstairs?’”

Later, she drove through the city center. “All these buildings are so badly damaged, I mean you see people’s driveways sticking out like that. It’s just amazing. It’s just horrific. It’s just horrific to drive through and see,” she recalled.

Kevin and Laura Sutter had only moved to Napa six months ago when the earthquake gave them a wake-up call.

“Our bed was shaking so hard, I thought the ceiling was going to fall on us!” Kevin said. “I remember the kitchen smelling like barbecue sauce and soy sauce all splattered on the floor. What bothered me even more was, having grown up in San Francisco, what if the epicenter of the earthquake was in San Francisco? If it was in San Francisco, the big one had hit! And then we found out it was here in Napa. What a disaster!”

Coincidentally, they took advantage of this Sunday to celebrate the church’s 150th anniversary. The old building has been through a lot over the years, including a massive windstorm in February that ripped part of the roof off and, once again, damaged the “Jesus Window.” Still, the congregation’s pastor, Genesis Osti, found inspiration.

“Life is like two parallel railway lines, there are always bad things happening, but there are also good things happening at the same time, and that's what this community taught me, I think, the importance of community as well. It's very important not to go through the bad times and the good times alone.”

During rehearsal with the choir, Ruthlin Miller talked about how the earthquake affected the city.

“This experience changed us in that we relied less on ‘things’ and more on ourselves and each other. And our friends, to be able to pull it all together. That’s what I remember most about it,” she said. “I really love being a part of Napa.”

Ten years have passed, and if you ask many who lived through that period, they will tell you that the “act of God” that tried to destabilize the town only succeeded in bringing it closer together.

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John Ramos

John Ramos accidentally began his lifelong journalism career when he began drawing editorial cartoons and writing clever satirical articles for his Bakersfield high school newspaper.

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