The Los Angeles County Courthouse, 1861

After being housed in a succession of aging adobe houses and after attempts to institute a bond issue failed twice with voters, Los Angeles County went back to a lease arrangement for another location for the county courthouse.

In 1859, prominent merchant and rancher Jonathan Temple, who had, several years earlier, sold the Rocha Adobe for use as a courthouse, constructed a commercial building called the Market House.  This two-story brick building was, apparently, modeled after Faneuil Hall in Boston, not far from where Temple was born and raised.  A deal in late January was reached by which the city would rent the building at 1 1/4% of its construction cost over a decade and that the city had an option to buy the structure at the end of that period.

On the last day of September, the common (city) council voted 4-2 to approve accepting the building as a commercial structure to be operated by the city, through an appointeed "market master," and rates were set for rentals.  In early November, Dr. John S. Griffin received approval to rent out the second floor as a theater--this was the first true theater built in the city.

An early view of the Market House, which became the Los Angeles County Courthouse on 1 May 1861.  Courtesy of the Workman and Temple Family Homestead Museum, City of Industry, California.  Click on any image to see them in enlarged views in separate windows.

The problem was that, by the time the building was completed, the county's economy was on a downturn, stemming from the decline of the Gold Rush, a national depression that erupted in 1857, the overstocking of cattle that were no longer commanding good prices in the market, and other factors.

Though the city then utilized the Market House for the leasing out of stalls for stores and other business enterprises, it was not very successful.  By the end of the year, the council approved the lowering of rent for stalls.  Early in 1860, Mayor Damien Marchessault was calling for the issuing of bonds so that the city could buy the building.

Meantime, the county looked for a solution to the courthouse problem by appointing a special committee on 9 February 1860, pursuant to a judicial order to find better quarters.  In June, the Common Council and the supervisors worked out an arrangement to turn the Rocha Adobe courthouse space into a police station house.  On 10 January 1861, the supervisors voted to seek yet another courthouse bond issue to present to the voters.

However, at the same time, the common council proposed renting the Market House to the county  In the 26 January 1861 edition of the Los Angeles Star it was reported that "our city authorities are proposing to the Board of Suervisors for the county to take the market house for county purposes, for courts, offices, etc."  The paper seemed enthusiastic about this proposal, noting that "we should be glad to see some plan adopted to help the city, as it is now losing $153 per month on the building," meaning the adobe of former mayor John G. Nichols, being used for the court house.

The Los Angeles Star, 16 February 1861, editorialized on the need for a new courthouse and that the failing city market in Jonathan Temple's Market House was an idea solution.

On 16 February, the Star editorialized that "we are in want of a county Courthouse, with offices for the various departments  of the public service, a county jail, &c.  We have a City Market, which we do not require, and which can be very easily converted into suitable rooms for all public purposes."

The paper also observed that the proposed $20,000 bond issue, but stated that the renting of the Market House was a better financial decision and asked rhetorically, "Do our citizens think, in our present embarrassed condition" that it was better to go that route, rather than have a bond issue with interest as debt to pay in future years?

Moreover, it was stated that, at the conclusion of ten-year lease, the county could have the option of buying the building and at a price one-half of the original cost of construction.  The paper asked another pair of rhetorical questions: "Are not both city and county drifting pretty rapidly into bankruptcy?  Shall nothing be done to stay this downward course, or shall $30,000 be added to the present burdens?"

Two days later, on the 18th, the Board of Supervisors formed a committee to explore the possibility of renting the Market House from the city, which had its own committee to work with its county counterpart.  On 4 March, the supervisors voted to lease the ground floor from the city at $200 per month, with the city agreeing to install the necessary partitions for conversion.  The agreement would take effect when the current lease with Nichols expired at the end of April.

The 9 March 1861 issue of the Star reported that the county Board of Suepervisors "have resolved to lease the City Market for the use of the Courts and County Offices."

On 1 May 1861, the new agreement officially began and the county moved into the Market House, including the courts.  The Nichols building was then turned over to a new citizens' militia: the Los Angeles Grays.

Things did go all that smoothly at the outset--on the 1st of July it was noted that neither the District Attorney nor the County Judge had an office in the Market House, so it was ordered that a new one be established between the supervisors' meeting room and the stairs to the second floor for both judicial officials to use.

At least, though, there was finally a structure that was a significant improvement for the operation of the courts and, pardon the pun, had at least the appearance of the proverbial "temple of justice" that a courthouse was typically thought to embody.

The Market House would remain the county courthouse for nearly thirty years, though there was the matter of purchasing the structure that became the next major milestone--more on that to come.