Home Dairy (Parish Café )

The Home Dairy was built in 1919 in the vernacular Craftsman Style by one of Healdsburg's most celebrated Craftsman bungalow builders. The noted contractor also a dairyman, so this building featured a little more architectural flair than you might find on the usual dairy. Recently remodeled to serve as the popular Parish Cafe, the former Home Dairy still retains some historic character while being creatively updated to serve its contemporary use as a restaurant.

Today the site of the Parish Café, the Home Dairy building was constructed in 1919 by respected local contractor George Day. Historic photos show that the dairy was built in the vernacular Craftsman Style. Many Craftsman elements have been removed or altered, giving the building a more vernacular farmhouse look. Vernacular buildings are either a mix of architectural styles, or do not follow a particular style. Construction materials are locally available and design elements suit the structure’s location or owner’s taste. Changes to the original building include an extended roof, changed roof line and addition of Carpenter Gothic style balustrade and brackets. The home also has decorative shingles added to the gable that are indicative of the Queen Anne style.

George Day built many Craftsman homes in Healdsburg with partners, Ed Guillie and W.H. Bush. In 1915 George and his wife Elizabeth (Dickie) started the appropriately-named “Home Dairy” at their then-home at 528 College Avenue. The dairy started with five cows in the back yard. Elizabeth milked the cows and ran the dairy while George ran his contracting business. In 1919 the Days purchased the site on Mill Street, where George promptly remodeled the existing house, adding the Craftsman-style porch to a simpler farmhouse. The porch was later remodeled to the Carpenter Gothic style. The Home Dairy purchased milk from other dairies, then pasteurized, bottled, and delivered the milk. Elizabeth tragically died in 1924; George married Lois Van Deveere in 1926. George and Lois continued running the business.

In 1930; the enterprising Day ran a contest; if you found a note from him under the bottle cap of a milk bottle, you would win $2.50 in milk products. The contest was likely a way to win customers. Ironically the day the contest was announced in The Sotoyome Scimitar, the headline read “Milk Price Cut” as the Redwood Dairy dropped their price of milk from 14 cents to ten cents a quart. The article mentioned that it did not know how other dairies would respond. As the Home Dairy continued to flourish, this did not seem to affect them.[1] The dairy industry did, as a whole, struggle during the Great Depression, with the Farm Bureau in 1931 asking the county to ease taxes on butter to aid the dairy farmers. [2]

South of today’s roundabout, George Day also built a handful of tiny cabins, “Healdsburg Auto Campground,” to capitalize on the ever-expanding tourist business along the Redwood Highway. Several of these cabins are still in existence at 147 Healdsburg Avenue. A coffee shop and restaurant called the Heidelberg Café were added in 1937. The Home Dairy continued to prosper for the next twenty years with the addition of an icemaking plant and ice cream manufacturing. By 1944 George Day sold all his businesses and retired, ending a 30-year business empire in south Healdsburg. [3]

Today the Parish Café is located at 60 Mill Street, carrying on the tradition of serving the community. Building owners, Wayne and Lorraine Humphrey, converted the former dairy building into a restaurant in 2013. The Healdsburg Museum and Historical Society presented them with the first Adaptive Reuse award in 2015. The creative repurposing of the building has helped preserve some vintage character and history in south Healdsburg.

[1] Sotoyome Scimitar, Redwood Dairy Slashes Prices to Ten Cents, Volume 32, Number 13, 29 May 1930, pp 1

[2] The Healdsburg Enterprise, Tax Proposed for Butter Substitutes, volume LIV, September 17, 1931, Number 106, page 6

[3] Russian River Recorder, One Fine Day: A Profile of the Enterprising George F. Day, Spring 2005, Issue 88, pp 14-15