Once shabby Victorian transformed into stately showplace
Any home remodel that drags on for five years is likely to get the attention of the neighbors.
Certainly, Napa’s downtown residents were watching and waiting, and then waiting some more, as Lauren Ackerman, a local vintner and philanthropist, transformed her decrepit but stately Victorian into a showplace.
Now known as the Ackerman Heritage House, the Randolph Street mansion took three months to build in 1888 and a half-decade to restore after Ackerman purchased it in 2010. With the makeover largely complete, the home is now hosting English teas, wine tastings and cooking classes.
“I moved to Napa in 1994 and didn’t notice the house until 2010 when I drove by it and saw the for-sale sign,” says Ackerman, a former high-tech marketing executive from Southern California. “It was dilapidated, overgrown, and I thought, ‘Somebody should save that house.’ ”
Nine months later, Ackerman owned the crumbling edifice, a 4,200-square-foot money sink with gaping holes in the floors, dangerous wiring and so much trash that the lender couldn’t conduct an appraisal.
Inspired by her mother, a successful house flipper, Ackerman began returning the home to structural soundness and period style, channeling the era when a Sacramento farming heiress bought the land for 10 gold coins and built the residence for $7,500. Ackerman scoured eBay for treasures and found antiques, like the house’s dining room and parlor tables, in London.
In mid-2014, just weeks before completion, the Napa earthquake undid the plasterwork. “It all came down,” says Ackerman. “I was at the end of my budget and timelines, and I just sat and cried. It took me another year to figure out
how to get it finished.”
Today, the elegant house functions as a by-appointment tasting venue for Ackerman Family Vineyards and Lloyd Cellars, both overseen by winemaker Rob Lloyd. Once a month, the antique teapots, silver and china come out of the cabinets for Sunday afternoon tea, a ticketed event (see details below) that includes a home tour. The roomy professional kitchen has a Victorian sensibility but high-end modern equipment, outfitted for private dinners and soon-to-launch cooking classes.
Ackerman views her finished project as a mini-museum, a community gift that needs an income stream to keep it shipshape. “I’m proud of myself for getting through it,” she says, “but I have no desire to do another one.”