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The San Bernardino County Court House on Court Stree in San Bernardino opened in 1926 and was designed San Bernardino Architect Howard E. Jones. (Courtesy San Bernardino Historical and Pioneer Society)<\/p>\nThe history of the Inland Empire is filled with interesting pioneers and noted personalities who made huge impacts in this region. There is one person though, who left an incredible legacy that seemingly has gone under the radar for many. This \u201cunsung hero\u201d was Howard E. Jones.<\/p>\n
Jones was a prominent architect and structural engineer whose expertise profoundly shaped the physical and civic landscape in the city of San Bernardino from the 1920s through the 1950s. During this time, he designed public and educational landmarks that defined the region\u2019s architectural identity.<\/p>\n
Born in San Bernardino on Sept. 27, 1885, Jones grew up in a vastly growing Southern California. Guided by his uncle Charles H. Jones of the architectural firm Jones and Palmer, he began his immersion in building design as a draftsman.<\/p>\n
Jones later moved to Los Angeles to work under leading commercial architects, including Norman F. Marsh, where he refined his mastery of structural engineering and spatial planning. Unconventionally for the era, Jones secured his full architectural license and structural engineering credentials largely through rigorous independent study and correspondence courses.<\/p>\n
By 1920, he returned to his roots in San Bernardino and opened his own practice, stepping into a booming regional economy.<\/p>\n
The San Bernardino County Court House on Court Stree in San Bernardino opened in 1926 and was designed San Bernardino Architect Howard E. Jones. (Courtesy San Bernardino Historical and Pioneer Society)<\/p>\n
Jones\u2019s most profound impact in San Bernardino\u2019s history lies in his civic and commercial buildings. These structures included the Municipal Auditorium in 1923, the Frank C. Platt Building in 1925, the Enterprise (originally known as the Andreson) Building in 1927 and the Harris Company, also in 1927.<\/p>\n
In 1926, Howard Jones created his masterpiece \u2014 San Bernardino County\u2019s Courthouse.<\/p>\n
When Jones received the contract to design this building in 1925, he was nearing his 40th birthday and at the peak of his career. This was a big job for the young architect, and it was a major commitment by the San Bernardino County Board of Supervisors. The project was estimated to be $450,000, far and away more than anything the taxpayers had spent for a single building up to that time.<\/p>\n
The July 22, 1923, earthquake damaged several county buildings, with the previous courthouse, hall of records and county hospital among them.<\/p>\n
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San Bernardino Architect Howard E. Jones designed the Platt Building which opened in 1925 as advertised here. (Courtesy San Bernardino Historical and Pioneer Society)<\/p>\n
The supervisors first consulted structural engineers from Los Angeles, who recommended the removal of the clock tower and northwest tower. There were also numerous cracks throughout the\u00a0 building. The supervisors then asked Jones to submit cost estimates for upgrading the old structure, but they eventually decided to replace it with a new one.<\/p>\n
On Dec. 18, 1926, it was announced that San Bernardino County\u2019s third courthouse had been completed. The total cost was $700,000, which included landscaping, moving the furnishings, and other unspecified associated costs.<\/p>\n
Jones proudly announced the architecture is classical Italian Renaissance, featuring a colonnade of eight stone columns, each 26 feet, and the colonnade itself being 100 feet wide.<\/p>\n
When the construction of the new courthouse was completed, the Los Angeles Times raved how local architect Howard E. Jones\u2019 newest creation would be one of the most beautiful in Southern California. On Dec. 18, 1926 the paper reported:<\/p>\n
\u201cNEW SAN BERNARDINO COURT HOUSE COMPLETED. Erected at a total cost of $700,000, San Bernardino County\u2019s new courthouse is now finished and ready for occupancy. Built as a class A structure of reinforced concrete, the new courthouse is richly wrought with marble, art stone and other structural beautifiers. Marble was used for the staircases, bronze for the doors; the ceilings are richly decorated in pastel colors and gold leaf.\u201d<\/p>\n
The structure is still standing today \u2014 100 years later \u2014 at the corner of Arrowhead Avenue and Court Street. It\u2019s on the National Register of Historic Places.<\/p>\n
With the 2014 opening of the 11-story San Bernardino Justice Center, the old courthouse is now used only for family law and probate.<\/p>\n
Jones also left an indelible mark on regional education. In the mid-1920s, he served as a primary architect for San Bernardino Valley Union Junior College (now San Bernardino Valley College), designing foundational structures like the Life Science and Classics buildings. Incorporating refined tile work, classical symmetry, and durable regional materials, these academic facilities provided an architectural anchor for higher learning in the local community.<\/p>\n
Jones also designed many other area schools, including\u00a0Lincoln Elementary School, Harding Elementary School, Riley Elementary School, Woodrow Wilson Elementary School, Marshall Elementary School, and Sturges Junior High School (designed alongside DeWitt Mitcham).<\/p>\n
When Jones retired in the mid-1950s, he left behind a legacy that nurtured the next wave of designers. Notably, post-war modernists like architect Harris A. Day worked under Jones upon arriving in the Inland Empire in 1950, absorbing his foundational approach before introducing mid-century modernism to neighboring Redlands.<\/p>\n
Jones remains a pillar of Inland Empire history, having translated the raw ambitions of a growing desert-mountain gateway into a legacy of brick, stone, and civic pride.<\/p>\n
The San Bernardino architect died July 31,1966 and is buried in his hometown\u2019s Mt. View Cemetery.<\/p>\n
You can contact Nick Cataldo at Yankeenut15@gmail.com<\/a> and read more of his local history articles at Facebook.com\/BackRoadsPress<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The history of the Inland Empire is filled with interesting pioneers and noted personalities who made huge impacts…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":824652,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[56],"tags":[228,226,227,2356,229,88,48548,102023,983,13489,39101,55336,452],"class_list":["post-824651","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-arts-and-design","tag-arts","tag-arts-and-design","tag-artsanddesign","tag-california","tag-design","tag-entertainment","tag-inland-empire","tag-local-history","tag-local-news","tag-los-angeles-county","tag-san-bernardino","tag-san-bernardino-county","tag-top-stories"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/824651","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=824651"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/824651\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/824652"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=824651"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=824651"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=824651"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}