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By Bill Coate - The Madera Tribune

This panorama shows Courthouse Park in its infancy in 1910.

Photo by: For The Madera Tribune

Newly planted trees and shrubs adorn Courthouse Park in 1910. The park survived an attempt fifty years later to build Madera's City Hall in its center but lost a later battle in 1982, to preserve its historic and aesthetic integrity when the jail annex replaced many of its trees and greenery.

Photo by: For The Madera Tribune

In the Beginning:

It was in 1909, that the Madera County Board of Supervisors first got serious about building Courthouse Park. In that year, they tried to purchase the property that lay between the newly erected courthouse and F Street (present day Gateway Drive), precisely where our annual Old Timers' Day-in-the-Park now takes place.

The talks were not going well. The Board and the owners of the property could not get together on a price. At issue was a row of businesses along F Street that included a Japanese boarding house, McCluskey's saloon and barber shop, the Chinese store of Lee Sam, his two-story lodging house, and the Yosemite Livery, Feed, & Sale Stable operated by W.B. Coffman.

The property owners were driving a hard bargain. Back and forth the negotiations continued and so did the deadlock, until things came to a head on June 5, 1909. On that evening, a fire wiped out all of the buildings on the west side of F Street, between Sixth Street and Yosemite Avenue.

The personal losses of business owners notwithstanding, something positive did emerge from the ashes of the conflagration. Suddenly the county was in the driver's seat in the negotiations over the price of the property. Almost overnight a sense of community spirit was aroused, and an agreement was forthcoming. The county bought the now barren land and set about to make plans for Courthouse Park.

Using Golden Gate Park as the Model:

It just so happened that at the time of the 1909 fire, William King Heiskell was serving as the custodian and groundskeeper of the county courthouse. When the supervisors closed the deal on the real estate east of the courthouse, they appointed Heiskell to be the superintendent of Courthouse Park. There was just one fly in the buttermilk, however. There wasn't any Courthouse Park. Heiskell would have to build it, so on November 26, 1909, the superintendent of the non-existent park in Madera made an audacious move. He mailed a letter to San Francisco asking for a copy of the complete plans of its Golden Gate Park. Heiskell requested the details of every tree, shrub, and plant in the famous San Francisco park. He was going to make Madera County proud.

The Golden Gate Park Superintendent was so taken with Heiskell's request that he notified the MacRorie-McCuren Company, architects of Golden Gate Park, and they in turn contacted Heiskell with an offer to help. Not only would they send copies of the plans, they would send someone down to advise Heiskell on laying out Madera County's Courthouse Park.

Thus it was that in 1910, Madera County's granite courthouse was framed with the beginnings of a beautiful park. Within a short time, Courthouse Park became home to a zoo, an aviary, and a bandstand. By 1924, the Board of Supervisors had opened the park to group use. Any church denomination or club could use the park by simply making application. There were just two restrictions. No collections or subscriptions could be taken for any reason, and the group activities had to conform with community standards of decency.

So it went for decades. Residents from all over the county enjoyed their park, and then local politicians began to cast not-so-furtive glances in that direction.

The Allurement of Courthouse Park:

The casting of covetous eyes toward Madera County's Courthouse Park began nearly fifty years ago when Madera's city fathers got it in their heads that they wanted to build a new city hall right in the middle of all of those trees, shrubs, and grass at Courthouse Park.

Private discussions were opened in 1956, and by New Year's an agreement between the city and the county was nearly complete. On January 8, 1957, city officials, led by Mayor Al Barsotti, held a final meeting with the Madera County Board of Supervisors to conclude negotiations for the site.

As the deal stood, the city would maintain the entire park area for 40 years in return for enough land on which it could construct its new city hall. Under the agreement, the city would obtain title to a block long strip of the park, 125 feet wide, running just east of the granite divider which separated the courthouse block from the park block. It seemed like a winning situation for everyone. Then somebody suggested that the public pulse be taken.

It was announced that on January 21, 1957, the Board of Supervisors would hold a public hearing on the matter. Neither the supervisors nor the city council were prepared for the fire storm that swept through the boardroom when that meeting was held. Strong dissent came from a large group of Maderans who made an eloquent plea to keep the park intact. Faced with the opposition of a multitude who opposed the proposed encroachment, the board voted unanimously to abandon the plan. Courthouse Park was saved as a source of pride for all Maderans and a rallying point for the next struggle to maintain its integrity: the jail house annex of the 1980s.



Note:

Next week Pieces of the Past will examine that controversy as it continues to bring the history of Courthouse Park into focus.

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.