This past weekend, Don and I took our yearly road trip to Central California to spend time with family and get our taxes done by our wonderful sister-in-law, Chris. Gerry and Chris come down from Northern California by train and Don and I pick them up in Hanford. Usually we drive straight to the station and back in the dark, but this year we decided to leave a bit earlier and explore a bit of Hanford. I learned that Hanford is the county seat of Kings County and has a population of about 50,000. This is the downtown area that I took some pictures of...it was raining on and off, so I didn't take too many shots. Above is the Fox Theatre. It was built in 1929. It has some live shows now and in the past has had visitors such as Bob Hope, Red Skelton and John Denver. Usually, local bands entertain there now.
This building, referred to as the Bastille, was the jailhouse to the area from 1898 until 1964. At one point it had shops and restaurants in it, but it looked boarded up right now.
Here is a close-up of the original name on the bricks.
Across the way is the County Courthouse. It was built in 1896 and used as an active courthouse until the 1980's when a new courthouse was built. It now houses some shops, offices and a restaurant.
Here's a close up of the facade. They don't make buildings like that any more. It was very pretty.
This building was also in the same square, but I couldn't find any information on it. It was closed when we were there, but it had a park area around it and we assumed that it was a gathering place for the Veterans.
The building was flanked by two of these big guns.
We had a nice time visiting with Don's family...we played games, ate too much and stayed up way later than our usual bedtime...it is going to take a few days to recover from all the fun!! I will post some more pictures tomorrow of our trip. I would like to thank Don's brother, John and his wife Hope for being great hosts for the weekend...and a special thanks to Miranda for giving up her room to us for the entire time...You're a doll!!
Enjoy the day, my friends!!
3 comments:
Sounds like a great visit! Great pics too.
Cool architecture! Too bad about the rain, but it sounds like you still had fun.
Angela
Thank you for the great city tour. I love the old buildings and love to see them refurbished and not destroyed. The Bastille looks like an awsome building. Our Union Station here in KC is going to be getting a few face lift soon.
Ann
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