Downtown

Secrets live in the basements and attics of old brick buildings in downtown Chico and Oroville, sealed off and abandoned in dark dusty rooms, untouched and unseen for decades. Jim the Inspector is one man who knows a few of those secrets. Jim is hired by buyers of buildings to check for problems with wires, pipes, wood, concrete; all things structural. He has a reputation for thoroughness. Jim told me, “If we can get there, we go. Where people don’t ever go is often where we find the big stuff.”

Jim shared with me the story of one of his inspections of an old downtown building. He asked the owner where he could find access to the basement. “We don’t have a basement,” said the owner. Jim knew better. He was sure the whole block stood over a basement area. He went below adjoining buildings and found old openings into the basement in question, sealed shut with brick and concrete.

 Jim searched the whole building, inside and out, and found no sign or clue of any door, hatch, or secret panel. But it had to be there.  Jim focused on a back room on the main level that had a section of floor covered with pre-WW II linoleum, a likely spot for an access door. Buried under that linoleum, perhaps? Jim told the owner of his hypothesis.

“Well, now I’m curious,” said the owner. He produced a flat-bar and hammer, and chipped up the old linoleum straightaway. There it was, a hinged square hatch-cover cut in to the thick sub-flooring. The hatch-cover lifted smoothly, exposing a narrow iron circular stairway spiraling into the darkness below. Jim descended, and came upon a half-circular bar and eight bar stools. Several dusty martini-style glasses and an empty unlabeled bottle stood on the bar top.

“It was as if the people had just left,” said Jim, “I could picture the scene in my mind.” Women in flapper dresses and pearls, men in zoot suits and spats, laughing and drinking illegal booze in their private prohibition-era Speakeasy.

“Where is this historical treasure?” I asked him.

“Somewhere beneath an old building in the North Sacramento Valley,” said Jim, “and that’s all I’m going to say.”

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Got a question or comment? I’d like to hear from you. Email escrowgo@aol.com or call 530-680-0817. Doug Love is Sales Manager at Century 21 Jeffries Lydon.