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The Superior Court of California, County of Lake, also known as the Lake County Superior Court or Lake Superior Court, is the California superior court with jurisdiction over Lake County.

History

Lake County was partitioned from Napa and Mendocino counties in 1861.

Lakeport was selected as county seat in the first election in June 1861, and a two-storey wooden court house with a footprint of approximately 30 ft × 50 ft (9.1 m × 15.2 m) was erected; a history states it was not "pretentious or showy ... but it answered the purposes for which it was designed very well indeed." The court house was destroyed by a suspected arson on the night of February 15, 1867, and all the county records were lost in the fire, except for one of the Treasurer's books. With the destruction of the court house, the county seat was temporarily moved to Lower Lake; after it returned to Lakeport in 1870, preparations were made for a new permanent court house. Early county judges included O.A. Munn (1861–63), J.B. Holloway (1864–71), and E.M. Paul (1872–79); after the new California constitution established the Superior Court system, judges included R.J Hudson (1880–89), R.W. Crump (1890–1903; died in office), and M.S. Sayre (1903;1904–14).

The contract for the new court house was let to A.P. Pettit on May 27, 1870, for $17,000 and it was completed in 1871. The same historian described the 1871 courthouse, a two-storey brick structure with a tin roof and a footprint of 66 ft × 44 ft (20 m × 13 m), as "not at all showy plain and tasty". It received a coat of cement in March 1906, and withstood the 1906 San Francisco earthquake one month later. The 1871 courthouse was added to the list of California Historical Landmarks as No. 897; it also was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1970.

The current courthouse was completed in 1968 behind the 1871 courthouse and dedicated on September 13; the old courthouse was turned into a museum for county and Native American history. The 1968 courthouse is a three-storey structure with brick archways on each face, designed by James Prather and Robert W. Stevens.

Venues

In addition to the main courthouse in Lakeport, a satellite court operates in the county's largest city, Clearlake.

References

1. ^ "Lake County Superior Court". Superior Court of California, County of Lake. Retrieved 13 July 2021.
2. California State Assembly. "An Act to define the Boundaries and provide for the Organization of Lake County". Twelfth Session of the Legislature. Statutes of California. State of California. Ch. CCCCXCVIII p. 560. direct URL
3. ^ Palmer, Lyman L. (1881). "General History and Settlement". History of Napa and Lake Counties, California. San Francisco: Slocum, Bowen & Co. pp. 55–99.
4. Carpenter, Aurelius O.; Millberry, Percy H. (1914). "XIX: Officials, Schools, Churches and Fraternities". History of Mendocino and Lake Counties, California. Los Angeles: Historic Record Company. pp. 151–156.
5. ^ "National Register Information System – (#70000134)". National Register of Historic Places. National Park Service. November 2, 2013.
6. ^ Deacon, John (2015). "Lake County". American Courthouses. Retrieved 13 July 2021.
7. "Lake County Historic Courthouse Museum". Lake County, California. Retrieved 13 July 2021.
8. "Lake County, California". Courthouse History. Retrieved 13 July 2021.
9. "Courtrooms and Holidays". The Superior Court of California, County of Lake. Retrieved 13 July 2021.

External links

• Official website
• California Courthouses (PDF). Judicial Council of California. 2008. Archived from the original (PDF) on December 21, 2019.

• Government of Lake County, California
• Superior courts in California