Merced County Courthouse Museum

I came to the Merced County Courthouse Museum to see their Panama-​Pacific International Exposition exhibit, which was closing in a few days.
When I walked through the door, I was immediately offered the choice of a tour or walking through the museum on my own. I split the difference. I took the tour until I reached the PPIE exhibit, and then I explored on my own from there.
The PPIE exhibit contains a lot of black and white photos from 1915. They range from the still standing Palace of Fine Arts to the displays which were brought from Merced to San Francisco for the exposition. But the highlights of the exhibit for me were two Novagems which once graced the Tower of Jewels, along with opening and closing day badges.
There is also a room full of Asian artifacts across the hall. So many things were on display, but I wish there were some signs to tell me what each thing was and what it was used for.
Don’t forget to see the upstairs exhibits. Use the stairs with a baby carriage on the landing. One room has a mini classroom complete with a teacher’s desk and student desks and chairs, another has a courtroom.
I took a few pictures. I didn’t see the no pictures sign until I was leaving (I just went with the tour guide and she never mentioned it to me), and no one else said anything either.
The museum was a lot larger than I thought it would be. I was there almost an hour. You can’t beat the price, it’s free!

I can’t stress how unique this old courthouse and museum is, and the best part of it all, its FREE. There use to be seven (7) of these Italian renaissance court house in California designed to resemble a palazzo designed by A. A Bennett, now only one remains in the world and that happens to be in Merced, which makes this courthouse museum one of a kind and a must visit if your in the central valley. This museum is only one hour away from Fresno and by combining visits with other attractions such as Castle air museum, hilmar cheese factory tour, UC merced ultra modern campus, Merced mini zoo and lake Yosemite; your one day in Merced county will be time well spent, I would suggest visiting on a Saturday or Sunday because all these other attraction would be open. Parking is FREE street parking and its really easy to get.
The Museum is open from 1 PM –4 PM Wednesday to Sunday, and as I mentioned it is Free of charge. The exhibits are so well kept and the size of this museum is really big, so plan to spend 20 minutes to one hour here. The courthouse style remind me of some part of harry potter movie, so for movie buffs this is amazing and a one in a lifetime experience. The exhibits contains not only the history of the courthouse but also other cultures and artifacts from Merced old golden past.
The docents are really friendly, and photos are strictly not allowed in the building, although I did it sneakily, but don’t do that. I wanted to just share with Unilocalers how amazing this building really is and why its worth visiting. Overall a must visit in the central valley. They do have a gift shop too.

I recently visited this museum and thought that it was pretty neat. I checked out their website beforehand, but the museum was much nicer than I had expected. I was expecting a much smaller place, but the museum is pretty large. I also liked that the outside had ample parking and a grassy park area.
I really enjoyed the permanent museum exhibits which showcased displays about Merced County history. The courtroom upstairs was really impressive and huge. The old records books were pretty cool to get a glimpse at as well. I recommend this museum to people visiting Merced and admission is free!