By SARAH LIM
Special to the Times
There are many reasons to go to the Merced County Fair, but this year is extra special for our history enthusiasts.
You’ve got to check out the Merced County Courthouse Museum’s display in the Tioga Building, where artifacts with rich Merced history take center stage — in the center showcase.
Imagine that it was a hot summer evening in the 1970s, and you just finished band practice at Merced High. After putting away your drum in the band room, you rode your red bike to the mall to meet up with your friends. It was the perfect night to be out, especially since your parents had gone to Reinero’s to celebrate their wedding anniversary. You and your friends pedaled across town to the County Fairgrounds. As tempting as it was to rush over to Rosie’s for your favorite chili dog, you had been dreaming about a corn dog and funnel cake all week long. Now that the fair was finally here, the wait was over!
Back to reality, at least four historical items mentioned in this fictional story are on display at the Merced County Fairgrounds. Can you guess what they are? Hints: something about the band, the mall, the restaurant, and the hot dog stand.
The first item is the brass drum from Merced High School Marching 100. It features “Merced High School” in black letters arched at the top and “Marching 100” in orange letters curved at the bottom. In the center is a rank of 17 uniformed marchers, the nearest one playing cymbals; the uniforms are white with orange leg stripes, epaulets, and a hat band.
Merced High had an active campus life, including the popular band program. Marching 100 was well known in the Central Valley and hosted the Central Valley Band Review for many years. This event, started in 1960, included a parade downtown and an awards ceremony at Courthouse Park. This brass drum took part in many competitions and brought home numerous awards.
Above the drum display is “Merced” from the Merced Mall sign, which is prominently featured in the center of the showcase. The iconic neon sign not only lit up North Merced when the area was still a cow pasture, but also has since become a defining symbol of coming-of-age stories. The Mall was built in 1969 by Codding Enterprises of Santa Rosa and was considered one of the newest, largest shopping centers in the San Joaquin Valley when it first opened. The sign was removed last year when the mall was renamed “Marketplace” and became a permanent addition to the Courthouse Museum’s collection.
Another sign on display is “Reinero’s Trophy Room Cocktails.” This bar and restaurant was established in the late 1940s by Ted B., Adolph, and Pete Reinero, known for serving both Italian and French cuisine on the 600 block of W. 17th Street (Main Street). In the early 1960s, the restaurant changed ownership when Miles Nichols and Cecil Stroming took over the operation, renaming it the Chuckwagon Restaurant, while the Reinero brothers retained the bar, which they renamed the Trophy Room.
By 1971, Eddie Salsedo became the new proprietor of the restaurant operation and called it DiCicco’s Restaurant. Salsedo had a good run for more than 15 years before closing the restaurant in the late 1980s. After a brief occupancy by Little Italy, the restaurant operation returned to the Reinero family and became known as Reinero’s Italian Restaurant in 1988. The building that housed both the restaurant and bar was destroyed by a fire in 2016 and was torn down by the city in 2019.
The fourth item on display is “The Hot Dog” sign featuring an adorable dog. Many associate this hot dog stand with Rosie Billings, especially her chili dogs, known for their rich flavor. The stand was located at 12th and J Streets, across the street from the Fairgrounds. Over the years, Rosie had many loyal customers, and the stand became a popular meeting place.
But the happy dog had been greeting customers as early as the 1950s when “Boots” Murdock opened the stand at 50 West 17th Street. The Hot Dog was one of the hottest spots in town in the ’50s and ’60s, rivaling Vernon’s Drive In or Cecil’s Golden Chicken (formerly Hap’s Drive In) as the place to get a quick meal or a meal to go.
After the Hot Dog stand closed down, the sign disappeared as well. Recently, with the help of a Courthouse Museum volunteer and a local business owner, the sign was rescued from a wrecking yard and is now on permanent display at the Courthouse Museum.
In addition to these artifacts, there are historic photos, a wooden wheel, a city limit sign, an old highway sign, a no-smoking sign, and, of course, that red bike. Please visit our display at the Merced County Fair; it will, no doubt, be a trip down memory lane. Here are some questions to make your visit to our fair display more interesting and educational:
1. When did Merced have a population of 33,750, as posted on the Merced City limit sign?
2. What is the make and model of the red bicycle?
3. What was the wooden wheel used for?
Remember the Courthouse Museum’s slogan: “See Something Old, Learn Something New.”
Sarah Lim is the director of the Merced County Courthouse Museum.