Yuba County razes ancient annex on 14th Street

One of Yuba County's more well-used buildings met its end Thursday, but there weren't many, if any, mourners.

The county annex on 14th Street in Marysville, which in various incarnations served as a county hospital, administrative offices and senior center, began being demolished in a chorus of crunching and clanking from a crane going to work.

County Administrative Services Director Doug McCoy said with 60-plus years of service, the building was at the end of its useful life. Since the senior center moved out two years ago, he said, the county has spent thousands doing abatement for asbestos and would need to spend far more to bring the building up to codes.

"It's got to the point where it needed an awful lot of care," he said, adding major retrofits would be necessary just for compliance with the Americans with Disabilities Act.

When GW Demolition finishes tearing down the annex in the next few days under a $120,000 contract, the next question will be what becomes of the six acres where the annex stood.

For now, the question will remain unanswered. Yuba County, which owns the land, has no immediate needs for something to be built there, although some agencies have expressed interest, McCoy said.

Among them is the Twin Cities Rescue Mission, which operates a not-for-profit service for the homeless nearby. "But the county's not in a position to donate land," McCoy said.

Because the property, across from county juvenile hall and county schools' main office, is surrounded by levees and a low train trestle, it isn't ideal for everything, he said.

The county hasn't had the land appraised, McCoy added.

Marysville's official historian, Henry Delamere, said he recalled the lot being a cattle corral before a building was established there after World War II.

"When I was a boy, we used to play back there," he said. The building served as the county's hospital for decades, McCoy said, including surgeries on site. After being shuttered as a hospital, the building was used for county offices until 2004, when the Yuba County Government Center opened.

Even with a long history as a public building, though, Delamere said he can understand the demolition.

"I remember going through it after the county moved out," he said. "I can imagine it was the type of building that was hard to do much with."

CONTACT Ben van der Meer at bvandermeer@appealdemocrat.com or 749-4786. Find him on Facebook at /ADbvandermeer or on Twitter at @ADbvandermeer.