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By Bill Coate - The Madera Tribune

This photograph of the finished courthouse and the jail was taken about 1905, long before overcrowding prompted county officials to build the jail annex which still stands in Courthouse Park.

Photo by: For The Madera Tribune

This 1900 photograph shows the Madera County Courthouse under construction. The old county jail sits to the south of the courthouse.

Photo by: For The Madera Tribune

Looking back, it reads a little like a comedy of errors. The story of how that 10,000 square foot cement block building got stuck out there in Courthouse Park is almost amusing--except that no one is laughing. Perhaps it would help to dig down to the root of the thing, even if it is a little difficult to chew.

That piece of property bounded by Gateway Drive, Yosemite Avenue, H Street, and Sixth Street came to the county in two parts. The western portion was a gift from Thomas E. Hughes (widely regarded as the Father of Fresno and great-grandfather of Maderan Lu Emmert) and the eastern half was purchased by Madera County in 1910.

By that time a fire had cleared the property, and all that stood on it was the turreted county jail and the granite courthouse. Before the year was over, however, Courthouse Park was laid out, and residents began to appreciate their new seat of government. In the minds of the people, the two were one--the courthouse and the park. Over the next few decades, that appreciation developed into reverence.

Then a couple of things happened to spoil the picture. Madera County got too big for its jail and its courthouse. By the 1960s, the old granite courthouse was empty, and the brick jail had so many additions that it looked like the Winchester House.

In the case of the former, with the cooperation of the Madera County Board of Supervisors and the indefatigable efforts of the Madera County Historical Society, the old courthouse was transformed into a museum and placed on the National Register of Historic Sites.

The jail, however, remained an embarrassment. Its labyrinth of extensions caused one visiting superior court judge to publicly proclaim, "It is an eyesore." Then came the 1980s, and the jail situation became critical. Severe overcrowding forced the county to create yet another addition, but this time it would be a completely separate building--a jail annex.

In 1982, no one seemed to question the need for additional bed space in the lockup. Where to put it was the question. Supervisors first considered building the extension out by the old county hospital (near where the current county jail is now located). Residents in that area, however, gathered enough signatures to block construction there.

With that, the county turned its eyes toward Courthouse Park with a view in mind to building a jail annex next to the existing jail. This brought out the horns of the historical society. In three days it gathered more than twice the number of signatures needed to bring the issue to a vote, and the fight began.

In the words of Supervisor J. Gordon Kennedy, "...the board could have rallied in opposition to the measure, but that tactic may have been construed as 'big political machine efforts.'" Instead the Madera County Taxpayers' Association lobbied against the measure.

In an attempt to mollify opponents of the Courthouse Park site, the Supervisors proposed to build the annex north of the existing jail rather than to the east. This, however, did nothing to assuage the stiffening opposition of the Madera County Historical Society, which took out half page newspaper ads urging the voters to cast their ballots in favor of "Measure B," the proposed ordinance which would have banned all future construction in Courthouse Park.

The battle went back and forth until November 2, 1982. On that day the voters decided the matter. Measure B was defeated by a razor thin margin of 448 votes out of 15,078 cast.

Two days later the Board of Supervisors, at a special meeting, approved bids for the construction of jail house annex, but not without some interesting discussion. Supervisor Al Ginsburg proposed that the building be placed to the east of the main jail facility rather than the north, where the costs would be $175,000 more.

Ginsburg's proposal was opposed by Board Chairman Gordon Kennedy and Supervisor Elmo Del Bianco on the basis that the Board's ballot argument against Measure B stated that the annex would be placed to the north of the jail. Supervisor Don Darnell joined Kennedy and Del Bianco to defeat Ginsburg's last minute proposal.

The next twist in the saga came two weeks later when it came time to prepare the site for construction. At their meeting on November 16, 1982, the board revisited the location issue and decided to shift the annex to the east after all.

In order to save money, the jail annex was moved in the plans 15 feet to the east, but therein lay an additional problem. Among the trees that would now have to be removed were four rare, 80 year-old Monkeypods. Engineer Norm Hansen pointed out that the size of the trees and their brittleness prevented moving them. They would have to come down, and that caused another problem.

On December 1, when the county workers attempted to remove one tree, it accidentally fell onto another tree that had not been tagged for removal and brought it down.

With that, the supervisors "went out on a limb" and decided to offer the wood from the fallen trees to the historical society, against the advice of Supervisor Ginsburg who cautioned that the gesture might be taken as "a slap in the face" by the group. Miriam Welton, president of the society gave a hearty laugh when she heard the news and said, "In a way, that's about the funniest thing I ever heard."

The final touch of irony to the jail house annex story came when the county later decided to build a new jail out by the old county hospital--the area that had first been tabbed by the board on which to build the annex. The new facility went up and the old jail yielded to the wrecking ball. Meanwhile, the jail house annex stands in Courthouse Park as a stark reminder that history has lots of strange twists and turns.

Bill Coate William "Bill" Coate is a San Joaquin Valley historian, author, television personality and retired public school teacher with 36 years of classroom experience. He is the award-winning founder of the Madera Method, a research-based educational program that uses primary source materials to help students explore history. He writes about the past of our nation and valley with a weekly column and story. He also writes articles pertaining to local schools. The Madera Tribune online subscription To subscribe or log on, CLICK HERE. For more information first, CLICK HERE.