At Last, Courthouse Opens Its Museum

Murray MacNeill Patton stood in the just-opened exhibit hall at the historic Old County Courthouse on Friday and told how whiskey helped his grandfather in building the red sandstone landmark 88 years ago.

Over late-night cribbage games years ago, Patton listened to his grandfather, Chris MacNeill, tell stories about the building of the courthouse--such as the time the tile setters went on strike, the first recorded strike in the then-11-year-old county.

Discouraged by the labor strife, MacNeill--of the Blee and MacNeill contracting firm--went to a local saloon to console himself. As he was bemoaning his troubles to the bartender, a fellow at the end of the bar offered to set MacNeill’s tile. But he set one condition: that he have a bottle of whiskey at his side.

“So my granddaddy broke the strike,” Patton said. “And it kept him running all day long to keep that fellow in whiskey. But he sure could set tile!”

Patton, 72, retold the story as he stood in the shadow of a historical display of a 1901 newspaper story on the grand opening of the courthouse and on his grandfather.

Another Ceremony

After years of uncertainty and controversy and of dedicated work by county officials and history buffs, the venerable courthouse--listed on state and national historic registers--was the scene of another ribbon-cutting Friday. The museum there opened, offering visitors a glimpse into the county’s past with its displays on the courthouse construction, county government, law and order through the years, trials, and county growth and development.

The exhibit includes former President Richard Nixon’s original birth certificate (filed March 27, 1942--29 years after his birth on Jan. 9, 1913--a not-uncommon delay in days when home births were the norm). Also featured are an 1886 map of Southern California showing the Santa Ana area as part of Los Angeles County (Orange County was incorporated Aug. 1, 1889) and lots of old photographs--of the courthouse being built, of street scenes, of damage from the 1933 earthquake, of liquor confiscated during Prohibition, of famous trials and of jail inmates.

There are displays of tools used to build the courthouse, of shackles that once confined inmates, of old cattle brands and of guns believed to have been used in a 1912 shoot-out that saw the first killing of a county lawman.

One exhibit focuses on the courthouse’s most famous trial, that of Beulah Louise Overell and her boyfriend, George Rector (Bud) Gollum, who were accused of killing Overell’s wealthy parents by dynamiting their yacht in Newport Harbor in 1947. The trial attracted nationwide press coverage, and hordes of spectators lined the streets of Santa Ana daily to watch the pair as they were escorted from the jail across the street. Evidence was introduced about sensational love letters exchanged between Overell and Gollum in jail, and in one of the letters Gollum wrote of planning an escape. The two were found not guilty.

(Despite their professed love, they never married. Overell died in 1965, apparently of alcoholism. Gollum today lives in a small town in the Sierra Nevada and buys and sells real estate.)

Modern-Day Exhibits

There are also modern-day exhibits in the form of video games challenging visitors to guess the verdicts of past trials and to discern an historical era based on visual clues on the screen.

Along with the Department 1 courtroom, restored to look much as it did in 1901, the exhibit gallery will be open to the public from 9 a.m. to 2 p.m. Tuesdays. The gallery and courtroom are on the top floor. The middle floor and basement are being renovated for use as offices next year by the county Harbors, Beaches and Parks Department, which owns the building and paid for the restoration.

Lecil Slaback, a county historical commissioner whose father was first court reporter at the courthouse, was clearly thrilled by the museum’s opening. At the commission’s first meeting 15 years ago, he said, he told the panel that a museum should be its first priority. Back then, he said, there was talk of razing the courthouse and using the land for a parking lot.

“It’s taken 15 years, but today’s the day,” he said as he entered the gallery.

Although the courthouse cost $117,000 to build, it cost about $4.4 million to reinforce the building to meet current earthquake standards and to restore the exterior, interior and furnishings.

Trials were moved from the original courthouse to the new courts building a few blocks away in the late 1960s. Although a few county offices remained in the old building, they, too, moved in 1979 after a seismic study determined that the courthouse would be unsafe in an earthquake.

Just as the seismic strengthening was being completed, the project hit another snag. A 1982 state law created a new appellate court district, and the new justices were supposed to move into the old courthouse. But the historical commission, so close to finally realizing its goal of having a museum, did not want to give up the museum space. The standoff was resolved last year with the passage of legislation allowing the justices to set up court elsewhere.

The opening of the museum coincides with the start of a year of events celebrating Orange County’s centennial.