Is it permissible to take apart a historic but damaged house â one of the city of Napaâs oldest landmarks â in hopes of saving it? Napaâs Cultural Heritage Commission on Thursday grappled with a plan to divide the skin of the Thomas Earl House near downtown into several panels, restore the exterior sections and piece them back together over a stronger, hidden steel framework â a seemingly radical surgery that owner Marc Porat called the only long-term way to preserve a landmark rocked by the 2014 earthquake. City staff, wary of dismantling the 159-year-old home even temporarily, called for the plan to proceed only after peer review by experts and weekly updates on the repairs. But the heritage commission unanimously granted the project a certificate of appropriateness â a statement of its belief that the shored-up landmark will retain its historical value, even if separated into pieces for a time.