Fagiani’s Bar, a historic Main Street property with a tragic past, has been sold to a developer who is considering putting in a restaurant.

For years, a long line of potential buyers tried to cajole Muriel Fagiani into selling the downtown landmark where her sister was murdered in 1974.

On Friday, Fagiani confirmed rumors that she and her nieces sold the two-story, 100-year-old stone building. The buyers: Steve and Johanna Hasty, Napa residents who have known Fagiani for a long time.

“There comes a time when you do something,” said Fagiani, who locked the doors in 1976, leaving the bar intact, deer heads on the wall, liquor bottles gathering dust.

Why the Hastys when many others, including the son of Francis Ford Coppola, had tried to buy it? “I guess it was just the time,” Fagiani said. “The kids (her nieces) wanted to sell it.”

The property will need lots of work, including seismic retrofitting, Fagiani said. Hasty, who owns Noble House Construction, impressed her as someone who would do a quality job. “He does a nice job redoing things, whether they’re little cottages or big mansions,” she said.

“I feel really fortunate that she liked selling it to me,” Steve Hasty said. “I can’t even tell you how lucky I feel to take over where her family has been for 60-plus years.”

“I don’t want to change the outside of the building,” he said. “Inside, I want it to look very much the same, almost a time capsule of the 1940s.”

Hasty said he first met Fagiani 25 years ago when his parents bought an investment property next to her home. They stayed in touch. She admired some of his home restorations, he said.

“Over the years I expressed interest in it,” Hasty said of the bar. “I was surprised when she said, ‘Let’s get together and talk about it.’”

Neither Fagiani nor Hasty would disclose the purchase price.

The building’s architecture and location make a restaurant the most appropriate use, Hasty said. He will be seeking a tenant who wants to preserve the building’s period style, he said.

July 10, 1974

For the past three decades, the Main Street property was the stuff of legend. As the rest of downtown redeveloped madly around it, Fagiani’s Bar remained a memorial to a murder.

Sometime on the night of July 10, 1974, Fagiani’s sister, Anita Andrews, was stabbed to death in a room behind the bar. Her corpse was discovered the next morning by Fagiani.

Police never solved the crime. Leads went nowhere. Andrews’ 1967 tan Cadillac was last seen the night of the murder at a Sacramento service station, where the killer used her credit card for gas.

While the story of the homicide has continued to captivate locals and visitors, the property more recently attracted attention of city officials and preservationists. The city landmark, with its masonry construction, was considered vulnerable in an earthquake.

Napa County Landmarks put Fagiani’s Bar on its most endangered properties list several years ago. In 2006, with buildings like Fagiani’s in mind, the city passed a seismic retrofit ordinance that will force owners to begin strengthening their unreinforced masonry buildings by 2009.

“This is just wonderful news,” Councilwoman Juliana Inman, who is president of Napa County Landmarks, said of the sale. “I don’t like to see buildings left vulnerable to demolition in an earthquake.”

Napa Mayor Jill Techel said she was sure that it was hard for Fagiani to sell. “It is a big piece of her history. I don’t imagine it was easy,” she said. “I’m sure she sold it to someone she trusted.”

Instead of being a conversation piece because of the tragedy that happened there, Fagiani’s Bar can play a central role in the new downtown, Techel said.

Located across from Veteran’s Memorial Park, the building has great views of the riverfront amenities that are emerging from the flood control project, the mayor said.

Cassandra Walker, the city’s economic development manager, said she was happy that the building now has a future. “It’s been sad to watch it deteriorate,” she said. “That building has always been an icon, a testament to our past.”

Fagiani said the bar was still full of equipment and furnishings, including the original bar of Philippine mahogany and the neon Fagiani’s sign. Hasty said he has no interest in the sign, but that the bar is likely to remain in any future restaurant use.

The building, which dates from about 1908, has a meeting hall upstairs. Early 20th century uses included a restaurant and a van and storage company.

Fagiani’s father, Nicola Fagiani, bought the property in 1945 for about $11,000. In 2004, when the Register did a story about the unsolved murder, some real estate professionals estimated the current value at more than $1 million.

Charter Oak Bank is financing the purchase, Hasty said.