If you happen to stop by the Lassen County Courthouse you might be in a big surprise. The offices are in the process to be vacated from the building while it is being overhauled. The County Clerk/Recorder and the Treasurer/Tax Collector are to be moved to the ground floor of the annex behind the courthouse, while the Assessor is a block away at the corner of Roop and Cottage Streets.
Of course an item of interest, is will the two large Boston ferns in the lobby survive the transition? Years ago, I spoke with former Lassen County Clerk Nadene Wemple about the ferns. After all, she was well versed in the building’s history. It should be noted her family had a dynasty on the clerk’s office, her father George Tomb was county clerk and so was her mother Maude Tombs. Nadene could not recall what the original plants were the graced the left and right stair wells. It was not until the early 1920s, that the Boston ferns were planted and have thrived all these years later, with many years receiving almost no care at all.