Old Calistoga Hospital- the Francis House

Jan 082014

When heading out to explore an abandoned hospital or house, I usually have an approximate idea of what to expect. If it’s a hospital, it’ll be secluded, probably surrounded by trees, or tucked into a hillside somewhere. If it’s a mansion, it’ll be off a country or mountain road, obscured in shrubbery, and accessible only after a hike through unruly brambles.

But none of this proves true with the ruins of an old hospital in Calistoga. The structure is both a house and a hospital, and it’s smack in the middle of a quaint suburban neighborhood. First known as the Francis House, it’s now legitimately referred to as the Old Calistoga Hospital.

The hospital in 1937, by IC Adams, c/o Sharpsteen Museum

The mansion was built in 1886 and was home to James Francis, a local merchant, rancher, and silver mine owner. Francis only lived there for five years until he died, and the house was purchased by Colonel M.E. Billings, a civil war veteran. Billings ran his law office from the Francis House until he died of pneumonia in 1918. After Billing’s death, the house was turned into a private hospital that ran until 1965, when state inspectors shut it down for failure to meet the current health and safety codes.

The house remained abandoned for four decades and became an unsanctioned dumping ground. In 2008, an attempt was made to clean it up, and workers discovered over a dozen discarded cars on the property. But in 2015, a San Francisco couple bought it, gutted the interior, and restored the exterior. It is now a boutique hotel. (I explored it a few years before it was purchased.)

Although I’m conflicted about the boutique hotel aspect, I’m grateful the exterior was saved because the house is the only stone version of a Second Empire building in the area. According to the Napa Register, “Second Empire style residences became popular in the 1870s and 1880s. Character-defining features of the Second Empire style include a square floor plan, mansard roof, ornamental shingles, bracketed eaves, pedimented dormers, projecting central pavilion, and semicircular and arched windows and doors.”

Although I grew up 45 minutes away from Calistoga, I’d never heard of the Francis House/Calistoga Hospital until recently. Probably because there’s not much of a story behind it, besides the predictable paranormal bullshit stupid fucking garbage nonsense myths that plague every abandoned hospital. Too bad though, I would have loved to see it before the roof and second floor collapsed.

There really isn’t much inside, only parts of the ground level are walkable, and the upper floors are completely inaccessible on account of no longer existing. I really like how the collapse caused all the angles of the doorways and arches to warp, making it look like a waxen Pee-wee’s Playhouse.