Est. 1880 · Site of California's last public execution (1897) · Documented 1891 murder-robbery · Victorian farmhouse relocated 1990s
John Quincy Greenwood arrived in California in 1849. A former sea captain from Maine, he accumulated modest wealth through shipping, then purchased roughly 500 acres in Jameson Canyon on the Napa-Solano county line around 1860. By the late 1880s he and his wife Lucina were living quietly in the farmhouse, growing grain.
On February 9, 1891, two men approached Greenwood outside while he was chopping wood. Billy Roe and his associate William Schmidt presented themselves as day laborers. When Greenwood turned them away, Roe drew a revolver and marched both Greenwoods inside. The men bound the captain, forced an opiate down his throat, and dragged Lucina into an adjoining room, where she was stabbed to death. They shot John Greenwood twice in the head and left; hours later they returned and shot him again. John survived all four bullet wounds.
Schmidt surrendered voluntarily, was convicted, and was sent to San Quentin, where he later died. Roe was caught, tried, and hanged in the Napa County jail yard on January 15, 1897 — an event attended by several hundred spectators and widely documented as the last official public hanging in California.
The farmhouse stood on its original site near South Kelly Road until the early 1990s, when it was physically relocated approximately half a mile west to its current address at 499 Devlin Road near Napa County Airport to make room for The Doctors Company corporate campus. It has since served as private office space.
Sources
- https://napavalleyregister.com/lifestyles/real-napa/columnists/rebecca-yerger/memory-lane-the-greenwood-tragedy-and-hauntings/article_6ef602c6-2e1b-51dc-a19e-b546b3f68158.html
- https://napavalleyregister.com/news/local/napa-county-mansion-with-colorful-history-seeks-to-become-cafe/article_0ae2e4ee-7d3e-5dc7-9dd5-85138569cb42.html
ApparitionsRecurring electronic anomalies
The haunting accounts cluster around two locations: the mansion's current address on Devlin Road and the original murder site, now part of The Doctors Company campus.
Witnesses in the original farmhouse prior to its relocation claimed to see Lucina watching from upstairs windows at night. After the move, she reportedly stayed behind — accounts place her apparition at the corporate campus on the former southeast corner of Jameson Canyon Road and the highway, not at the mansion itself.
The most specific claim attached to the site is a reported computer malfunction that occurs at exactly 5:15 p.m. at The Doctors Company offices — said to mark the hour of Lucina's death. This is anecdotal, relayed in local journalism rather than documented by independent investigation.
John Greenwood, who outlived Lucina and died later of unrelated causes, is said to haunt the relocated mansion's attic, where he allegedly slept near a wagon Lucina prized. Neither his spirit nor hers has been the subject of formal paranormal investigation documented in publicly available sources.
Notable Entities
Lucina Greenwood
