The old Merced County Courthouse is a beloved landmark in downtown Merced. It’s stood at the same spot since 1875. But it’s not the county’s oldest seat of justice. The story of Merced’s first courthouse, which you can still find today in Snelling, today on KVPR’s Central Valley Roots.
The City of Merced is a relatively recent invention. Founded in the 1870s with the arrival of the Central Pacific Railroad. But Merced County is much older, and was founded in 1855, when it broke away from Mariposa County. The Gold Rush was still underway, and the new county needed a county seat and a courthouse, and local residents settled on the town of Snelling. Situated on the Merced River near where the valley meets the foothills, the town was laid out in 1856. It was named for the nearby Snelling family ranch.
In 1857, the county got around to building a courthouse. The building is modest in size, with a whitewashed wooden second story built over a sandstone foundation. It reportedly cost $13,000 to build, a considerable sum at the time. It was the county’s seat of government until 1872, but continued to serve county government for the next century. In the early 2000s the building was in danger of collapse. That’s when a restoration project was launched that stabilized the historic structure, which is now the Snelling Courthouse Museum. Today the Snelling Courthouse is a California State Landmark.
