Tale of two courthouses
Second gold rush facilitated building of Tuolumne County’s second courthouse
Editor’s note: The following is the conclusion of a two-part story on Tuolumne County’s first two courthouses, the first of which appeared in The Union Democrat on Feb. 25 and can be found on the newspaper’s website at www.uniondemocrat.com. The author of the piece, Carlo M. De Ferrari, was Tuolumne County’s official historian from 1972 until his death in 2017.
The county’s second courthouse, the focus of the following article, is a three-story landmark and among the most distinctive buildings in the region.
Listed on the National Register of Historic Places since 1981, the courthouse still stands today at 41 W. Yaney Ave. in downtown Sonora. The county is currently studying uses for the building since all superior court departments relocated to the new Law and Justice Center east of downtown Sonora in November 2021.
Both of De Ferrari’s pieces on the courthouses were first published in CHISPA, the quarterly magazine of the Tuolumne County Historical Society, which he edited and wrote for 40 years.
The need for a new, larger courthouse had been obvious for many years, but the lack of funds had always deterred any action. By the mid-1890s, a booming economy based on Tuolumne County’s second gold rush had greatly increased the county’s revenues and solved that problem.
The rhythmic thud of falling stamps in the quartz mills provided the tempo to which the county’s economic recovery marched, and nowhere was it faster and louder than at Jamestown and its satellite communities of Rawhide, Quartz Mountain, and Stent. There, day and night, the quartz mines poured forth rich auriferous ore to be crushed in their mills and its wealth released.
That area experienced a rapid increase in population and building activity, which some came to believe would continue well into the future and make Jamestown the most populous and prosperous center of the county.
In 1855, Jamestown had unsuccessfully attempted to replace Sonora as the county seat, and in 1897, that aspiration was revived among some of its citizens. They called for a delay in the erection of a new courthouse and proposed that the annual surplus tax receipts be accumulated for that purpose until after the election of 1900, at which time the location of the new courthouse could be decided by voters.
There was yet another group of county residents who wanted the surplus revenues expended upon road improvements and bridges. “These so-called roads are in most places so bad that a rat-tailed government pack mule would shed tears of remorse at being compelled to pack hard tack and rust bacon over them…” the Mother Lode newspaper of Jamestown editorialized in August 1897.
The Tuolumne Independent paper fired back: “Outside towns don’t want a courthouse built in Sonora and that’s the very reason Sonora should build one. Now is the time to build a courthouse.”
The county Board of Supervisors adopted a resolution on Aug. 14, 1897, in which it found the old courthouse was “...in a dilapidated and unsafe condition, its vaults in which the records of the county are kept wholly inadequate for the necessities and demands of the County…” and directed their clerk to advertise for the
submission of plans and specifications in detail for a brick and stone courthouse “to be erected at a cost not to exceed forty thousand dollars ($40,000) on the present Court House Site in the City of Sonora.”
The Union Democrat applauded the resolution, calling the existing courthouse an “old rookery that was built in 1852,” and warned that it had been known for years that the old courthouse was unsafe and might collapse at any moment.
The newspaper’s office was situated on West Yaney Avenue opposite the building, and the writer added that it was a common occurrence for strangers to pass by the courthouse and enter the “elegant parochial residence” of Fr. Patrick Guerin of St. Patrick’s Church, located to its rear, mistaking it for the courthouse.
The Magnet of Jamestown published a letter from Mountain Pass farmer James A. Goodwin who wanted taxes lowered, but also felt compelled to answer the previously cited Democrat article which expressed sympathy for those forced to work daily within the “forbidding walls” of the old building.
In a letter to the Mother Lode, Goodwin wrote that Sonora’s greatest enemies “are within her own gates in those puffed up and narrow minded editors who can see one side of a question; they estrange people from her by the kind of drivel they weekly dish out to us.”
Petitions were circulated in Columbia and in the communities in the southern and western parts of the county asking the board to rescind its call for bids.
On Sept. 21, 1897, the supervisors held a public hearing to consider rescinding the resolution. Attendance was so large that the meeting had to be held in the superior courtroom.
Goodwin and William Pressley, of Chinese Camp, appeared on behalf of those requesting withdrawal, and petitions with 357 signatures were presented in their support.
Attorneys John B. Curtin and F.W. Street appeared in opposition, and Attorney H.D. Lovejoy, of Jamestown, commented that “...there would be no satisfaction in having a gilded courthouse with roads that would not enable people to see it.”
A motion to withdraw the resolution failed on a 3-2 vote.
In January 1898, the board spent several days examining plans and specifications submitted by 10 architects. After two ballots, the board was deadlocked and had to return at 6:30 p.m. for an extended session. At 3:30 a.m. the following morning, the San Francisco firm of William Mooser and Son was selected by the board majority, with Supervisors John Phelan (Groveland), Thomas A. Hender (Sonora), and Henry Pease (Jamestown) voting for Mooser’s design.
The Independent published the most complete summary of Mooser’s plans, describing the new building as being of “the Spanish style of architecture and somewhat resembles the old missions of Southern California.”
Architect Mooser gave the board the choice of building with or without a tower, and a reporter commented: “The present courthouse faces Green Street. After viewing the situation the architect decided to face the new building on Yaney Ave., the plan, however, may be reversed to face Green Street if the board should desire.”
It has long been courthouse lore that the decision to have the courthouse face West Yaney Avenue was made to accommodate Samuel S. Bradford, Sonora’s most affluent citizen at the time, to whom a substantial number of local families owed their daily bread. He then resided in a handsome residence facing Yaney directly opposite the courthouse site on part of the lot now occupied by the county’s A.N. Francisco building.
The Union Democrat, whose office was located adjacent to the Bradford home, was also quite favorable to having the new courthouse face Yaney. The paper noted that “all architects concur with Mr. Mooser that this is the true position for the main entrance as it then comes to a street level and the surrounding view… includes some of the handsomest buildings in the town.”
The architect’s plans provided for the county Recorder’s Office to be located on the first floor to the rear of the building surrounded by high brick walls and having the ceiling and floor “absolutely fireproof.” An interesting feature of his final plans was that the steam boiler of the heating system was located directly under part of the recorder’s office.
After the contract was awarded to Mooser and Son, one of the unsuccessful architects, John M. Curtis, claimed that the contract award had been “fixed” and implied that Supervisor Hender had been in on it.
Curtis had designed the Placer County courthouse in Auburn four years earlier. Hender revealed that the architect had importuned him in San Francisco to “fix” things. When he informed Mooser that the Tuolumne County Board of Supervisors were not of the “boodle (bribe) class,” he had replied: “Why, you’re not in this for your health, are you?”
While there was talk of a grand jury action, the matter seems to have died from lack of interest; however, later there were some broad references in the local press of some unrecorded arrangements being made between some unnamed officials and contractors.
On April 5, 1898, the final plans were officially adopted with the understanding the proposed building would be a fireproof one, but with fire hoses on each floor. When construction bids came in, they far exceeded the $40,000 the board had planned the previous August.
On May 21, 1898, the construction contract was awarded to low-bidder Charles F. Mccarthy at $72,893. The contract for electrical work went to Frank Lyman ($1,087); Herring, Hall and Marwin ($2,650) were to construct vaults and safes.
The bids on construction materials called for granite steps, lintels, sills and water table course with the requirement that it be Tuolumne County granite; however, no granite was being quarried or milled locally at that time, so sandstone from Sites in Colusa County had to be substituted.
The old wooden courthouse had to be removed, and the site was ready for the contractor to begin work by July 20, 1898. The various county offices and their records and furnishings had to be relocated.
The county clerk and auditor and the assessor were installed in the banquet room of the nearby Odd Fellows hall. The recorder was set up in a building adjacent to and north of the superior judge’s chambers on the east side of Washington Street opposite Yaney Avenue. The sheriff was located in a building south of the Yosemite House on North Washington Street, but later, at his request, was moved to another location.
Superior court sessions were probably held in the Washington Hall, but were also reported as being in the Rother building on Elkin Street.
The next step was the sale of the county’s pioneer courthouse. The north addition of 1891 went to Steven Rablen for $26, the older addition on the south went for a mere $5 to A.C. Livingston, a Sonora shoe store owner, and the original courthouse was purchased by contractor Mccarthy for $50.
To provide the estimated 800,000 common red brick required, the San Joaquin Brick Co. erected a brick manufacturing plant where suitable clay had been found on the Charles Brusie ranch near the confluence of Wood’s and Sonora creeks. Bricks were scheduled to be burned in 300,000 lots, with any surplus available for local sale.
Hugh Braunton, one of the architects who had bid on the courthouse project, was appointed to act as superintendent of construction at $4.50 per day.
Work on excavation for the foundation commenced in late July and when completed, the building would rest on solid bedrock at a depth of from 2 to 9 feet. Pouring the foundation required 500 barrels of cement, 300 four-mule wagon loads of “select gravel” and 150 loads of sand. The concrete forms required 10,000 boards of lumber.
Work was delayed in late August when steel from Carnegie’s Iron Works in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, did not arrive on schedule. Meanwhile, 300,000 red bricks had been burned and were ready at the Sonora plant and 85,000 Roman pressed buff bricks were en route.
By mid-october 1898, the walls of the first story were almost complete. Three hundred thousand red bricks had already been laid, and 40,000 of the buff pressed bricks were in place.
It was noted that a good brick mason could lay 2,500 red bricks a day, but only 300 of the others due to the great care and skill required in laying the exterior shell.
As the work progressed, change orders were occasionally made by the board’s building committee subject to later approval by the board. Specifications for the tower clock were altered to make it a striking clock, raising its cost to $875. By mid-december, the clock tower was nearly complete, and an ornamental sculptor named Baltie was ending the work there. Three weeks later, it was covered in tin.
The clock periodically acted up over the succeeding decades, reportedly on one occasion showing a different time on each of its four faces. In January 1926, the janitor, John Rocca, severely wrenched his back while using the winding crank and was removed from the tower with great difficulty.
In the early 1930s, the old weights and crank were replaced with electricity.
When the cupola was completed, an American flag, 18 feet long by 12 feet wide, was presented to the county by Sonora merchant Matt Johnson and began flying from the cupola flagpole on June 16, 1899. The flapping of the flags allegedly weakened the cupola, causing the supervisors to relocate them to a pole 60 feet tall in Courthouse Square in July 1924.
Originally, there were no plans for an archives room. Each office retained its accumulated records and space problems grew. A change order suggested by the architect resulted in a room for that purpose in the basement directly east of the foot of the stairway.
The steam boiler and related equipment for a heating system arrived in late June 1899, and installation soon followed in the basement. The boiler was designed to use solid fuel, and on the average during cold months, it was estimated that it would consume a railroad car laid of coal and 35 cords of seasoned oak, which was cut in 3-foot lengths. The boiler was later converted to burn oil.
Faced with providing sewage disposal for the new building, the old one having been served by an outhouse, the supervisors received the city’s permission to construct a branch sewer line down Green Street to connect with a city main.
Upon completion, at a cost of $730, the county offered to transfer ownership of the line to the city for that sum, and to pay $400 for the privilege of using it. The city refused, so the county allowed the owners of homes and business buildings along the line to connect for a fee.
The county Treasurer’s Office was furnished with a massive safe weighing 10,800 pounds. To make it more secure, concrete was poured between the safe and adjacent brick walls. Across the hall, the County Clerk and Auditor’s office had a large vault installed between it and the adjoining supervisor’s chambers on the south. The iron door fitted to it was salvaged from the vault of 1891.
The Democrat reported the building would be completed on schedule unless the board’s building committee tried “...to work in another expensive change in specifications.”
In August, finishing work was underway with Hartvig and Thomas, local painting contractors, applying varnish to the interior. A mechanic took a week to line the main entrance facing Yaney Avenue with copper plates. At this time, another delay was experienced due to the nonarrival of the steel frame and decorative rails of the marble-treaded staircase leading from the basement to the top floor.
By mid-october, the steps were in place. The Democrat commented that those who had heretofore failed to admire the beauties of the “buckskin edifice” through fear of risking their lives on a lot of dizzying ladders, could now do so in comparative safety.
There had been growing criticism in the local press over the increasing costs and when Moser presented plans and details for the office furniture costing an estimated $11,000-$14,000, there was some reaction. When the sole bid from the Pacific Construction Co. for $14,973 was accepted, the Tuolumne Independent asked if that price “...included a few easy chairs for the taxpayers who foot the bill for all this grandeur?”
On Nov. 5, 1899, arrangements were made for some employees to begin occupying their space, providing it did not interfere with the work of finishing the unoccupied sections. It was time to hire a janitor and Farlen F. Ball was appointed at a salary of $100 per month.
The last major contract, for the improvement of the grounds and construction of cement sidewalks around the building was also awarded to Pacific Construction Co., again the sole bidder, on Nov. 8, 1899, at a cost of $4,983.
On July 23, 1900, architect William Mooser certified that all work was finished and the board declared the new courthouse to be fully and finally completed and the work accepted.
The best description of the new courthouse was published in the Mother Lode Magnet on Nov. 22, 1899, following a tour conducted by the architect. He briefly described the layout of most offices and noted that those located in the basement had linoleum on the floors, while those on the two floors above were provided with Axminster carpets.
It is surprising that the reporter made no particular mention of the grand entry from West Yaney Avenue with its sandstone columns, or the inside use of marble quarried at Columbia and finished to specifications in San Francisco.
The venerable old courthouse was honored on Aug. 22, 1972, when a bronze plaque was placed at the basement entrance facing Yaney by the Tuolumne Board of Supervisors and the Tuolumne County Historical Society.
On Jan. 1, 1981, the courthouse was listed in the National Register of Historical Places, the honor roll of America’s finest heritage resources. The nomination for that designation was prepared by Sharon Marovich, approved by the historical society, and filed with the consent of the supervisors.
The evolution of the courthouse to the present day is beyond the scope of this brief account. The building erected in 189899 served admirably for nearly half a century until population growth and the constantly increasing expansion of services mandated by higher levels of government brought about a need for additional space.
Commencing in the mid1930s, various plans were advanced for either the remodeling of the old courthouse, or the construction of added facilities. There were proposals to construct an additional story to serve as the county jail and to erect a Hall of Records facing Washington Street between Yaney and Dodge. Both of these projects failed due to lack of funds.
About 1950, the county bought the block north of the courthouse where the Rose Court Apartments were located. The residential units were converted into office space. After the later acquisition of the Union Democrat corner lot, the county built a fourstory office building and named it the A.N. Francisco Building in honor of the pioneer paper’s first publisher.
In the early 1960s, the Board of Supervisors considered a plan to attach an annex to the east side of the courthouse which would cross over North Green Street and occupy part of Courthouse Square. It failed due to strong public opposition.
In the early 1970s, counter proposals were developed to either move the administration of county government to a site on Greenley Road, or retain it in Sonora and acquire the block to the south of the courthouse lying between West Jackson Street and West Bradford Avenue. These counter proposals led to a divisive and bitter political quarrel, and resulted in the erection of an administration building adjacent to the old courthouse on the south.
Unfortunately, these two buildings did not materially solve the major problem of nearby public parking, although the Francisco building did provide for 58 additional spaces.