City Clerk's Office Ventura Near Me

4worldlovers:
San Buenaventura City Hall is the former Ventura County Courthouse built in 1912-13. This State of California Historical Landmark, listed on the National Register for Historic Places, is noted for its gleaming terra cotta exterior, copper sheathed dome and elegant Italian marble foyer.


City Hall began life as the Ventura County Courthouse Annex and housed the Sheriff's Office and jail. The original architect, Albert C. Martin is also known for his design of Grauman's (now Mann's) Chinese Theater in Hollywood. The 200-foot frontage by 135 foot depth annex was completed twenty years after the original Ventura County Courthouse. The five-year project (1927-1932) was supervised by architect, Harold Burkett, and built by the Union Engineering Company of Los Angeles. Between the first and second floor windows of City Hall are 24 faces. They depict mendicant priests which served as a historical reminder that the City of San Buenaventura was one of the nine original Mission towns founded by Father Junipero Serra and Franciscan friars in 1782.


In 1969 The Ventura County Courthouse closed its doors when it was determined to be seismically unsound. To save the building from demolition, the City of Ventura purchased it from the County. After three years of planning and two years of restoration, structural reinforcement and replacement of plumbing, electrical and air conditioning systems, the building opened for City business in 1974.