Featured Historical Courthouse

Alpine County Courthouse

Completed 1875

Originally part of the Territory of Utah and then the Territory of Nevada, Alpine was recognized as part of California following an 1863 survey of state boundaries. Alpine's first county seat, Silver Mountain City, was abandoned in 1873 after the demonetization of silver, and the county government moved to Markleeville. This building, originally the Odd Fellows Hall, was used as the courthouse until 1928, when the courts moved to a more modern facility.

Courtesy California State Museum

Alameda's Victorian courthouse was built on Oakland's Washington Square after the county seat was moved from Alvarado (part of present-day Union City) to San Leandro and finally to Oakland. The ornate brick building had fallen into disrepair by the mid-1920s (judges called it a "vermin-infested menace to health and records"). During heavy winter rains in its final years, bailiffs held umbrellas over the bench to shield judges from leaks. In 1936, a new county center on Lake Merritt replaced the old courthouse, which county supervisors voted to demolish in 1949.

Courtesy Oakland Public Library

Siskiyou County Courthouse

Completed 1857

By order of county supervisors, Siskiyou's courthouse was to be "placed in the center of the public square in Yreka City," a foresight that residents say helped save the structure from town fires. The plaza was also the site, in 1895, of a lynching in which four men accused of murder were taken from the jail and hanged from a rail post placed between two small locust trees. The courthouse, one of the oldest in the state, remains in use and is the centerpiece of Yreka's Historic District.

Courtesy Charles E. Young Research Library, University of California, Los Angeles