The Property Today
Despite the loss of two houses—the 1890s farmhouse also burned down—five homes remain, each in a different architectural style.
The 2,800-square-foot ranch house was updated after they bought the property. Nearby, an almost 1,000-square-foot one-bedroom, one-bath guest house has stucco siding and lies underneath a centuries-old oak tree. A 1,000-square-foot “artist house” also has one bedroom and one bathroom and is sited next to its own pond. A four-bedroom, Palladian-style, 3,200-square-foot home is set at the edge of a lake. And a hyper-contemporary house built in 2006 comprises three separate structures, with a total of five bedrooms spread across some 3,800 square feet.
“The existing structures are architecturally significant, and there’s already a fair amount of square footage up there,” Dickinson says. “But because of the fire, there are two building parcels that are good to go, if someone wants to build their own structures, too. It offers an awful lot.”
There are also acres of vineyards, which are harvested by winemaker John Lockwood for his Enfield Wine Co. Much of the remaining land is grazed on by cattle owned by a boutique, grass-fed beef operation, Five Dot.
Refuge Potential
Because the ranch was designed for communal living, it has almost everything a person or family could hope for when sheltering in place.
In a state not known for an abundance of water, the Green Valley Ranch has a surfeit: “Not only surface water, with our lakes,” Dickinson says, “but our groundwater is really good. Well water can be dodgy, but ours is great.” There are already gardens—vegetable and otherwise—and multiple homes offer varying degrees of solar power.
The ranch isn’t quite off the grid, Dickinson says, “but it could be a self-sufficient environment rather easily, which I think will make it attractive to certain people.” He suggests that additional solar panels could be quickly obtained, noting that the group hasn’t begun to explore the potential of wind energy.
The ranch lies only 15 minutes from downtown Napa, but it’s still off the beaten track, which, Dickinson says, is proving a selling point. “It has this incredible potential to be securely isolated but not incredibly remote,” he says. “To get away, you don’t have to go to the middle of Wyoming or wherever.”
Dickinson already misses the place. “Every year, we have a ‘high spring’ day, usually the first Sunday in May,” he explains. “Hundreds of friends come up and swim in the lake and picnic, and we have music, and it’s a wonderful expression of the spirit of what our ranch has been.” During the Covid-19 pandemic, he continues, “like everyone else, this, too, has fallen by the wayside.”
This article was provided by Bloomberg News.