Planned to become the city’s Development Services Center, the old Los Banos Police Annex building has a history dating back to the months before World War II. It was a symbol of progress in 1964 and may soon become one again.
During the recent soft demolition of the inside, workers revealed that out of the 9,322 square feet in the building, approximately 2,000 square feet on the east side is far older than the rest.
Research in the Milliken Museum’s Newspaper Archives revealed that it was built in early 1939. It was a 40-by-50-foot single-story brick building.
Its original purpose was as a specially designed creamery for the Los Banos Dairy Company. Today, wood and the exterior wall boards up the two large front windows that used to allow direct viewing of the machines inside. The building was built by contractor F. H. Riedle and cost $9,000 to construct, or $208,320.43 as of Dec. 2025.
The LB Dairy Co. was previously in the Odd Fellow’s Building at the northeast corner of 6 and J Streets. They made the move into the building in a single day, April 27, 1939.
It was “a busy day for the truckers, plumbers and electricians,” The Enterprise reported at the time. It featured an “automatic capping machine, pasteurizer, tubular cooler, bottle washers, methylchloride compressors and other equipment.” To run and cool that equipment, they had a boiler room and an 150 foot well on-site.
At some point between the 1930s and the 60s, the creamery moved out of the building, which was then repurposed as an office building. The great, large windows were boarded up and stuccoed.
In the only surviving photo of the building from the 60s, it has a large “Community Loan” sign hanging off the front.
In 1964, the building was owned by contractor Ted Falasco. Los Banos was at the beginning of its dam boom. Businesses were looking to expand in Los Banos. One such business was State Savings and Loan, which formed a partnership with Falasco. They built the rest of the building we know today.
Falasco’s Concrete Blocks stand side by side with Rheidle’s
Falasco’s construction makes up everything west of the elevator shaft on the bottom floor and the entire second floor. Not only did he add an elevator shaft, but he also added a two-story vault on the west side of the building.
Circa early 1960s, the only photo depicting the 1939 Los Banos Dairy Company that would eventually become the Los Banos Police Annex building. A cop unknowingly foreshadows the building’s future.
The second story overhangs the entry road, where a teller’s window allowed drive-thru banking. Out front, a 900-pound temperature and time sign was mounted on a metal beam.
State Savings and Loan occupied the bottom floor, while the Falasco Law offices and other tenants occupied the old building and top floors. One such tenant was the Los Banos Chamber of Commerce. They occupied some rooms for at least 9 years between 1969 and 1978. The community room in the building was used by various groups. Prominently, the building hosted a summit of Westside Chambers of Commerce in 1969.
Over the years, the building changed owners. And by the late 1990s, it was owned by Washington Mutual Bank. Before the entire bank went bust in the 2008 recession, it sold the building to the Los Banos Redevelopment Agency in mid 1999, according to deeds held by the Merced County Recorder.
At this time is when the Police Annex became what many now remember today. Hosting county services, the building department, code enforcement, police training and even investigation materials.
When the new Police Station was built in 2023, the building became vacant. The city now plans to renovate the building.
At the Sept 3, 2025, council meeting, then interim city manager Gary Brizzee described it as “basically the doubling of our footprint at city hall.” At the Oct 15, 2025, meeting, $7,800,000 was approved for Swinerton Builders and Taylor Group Architects to build and design the building into a Development Services Center.
It will be a “one-stop shop” as described by Community and Economic Development Director Stacy Elms at previous meetings reported by The Express. It will now house the offices of six city departments: Planning, Building, Engineering, Housing, Fire Prevention and Economic Development.
The funds will also go to renovating the city hall and a feasibility study of the old police department. With the end goal of making the area around city hall into a civic center.
From the tail end of the Great Depression 87 years ago, the dam boom 62 years ago, to now. A symbol of progress in the past, to a facilitator of future progress.
The article is a short summary of a month-long research project done at the Milliken Museum.
