Effort Underway to Save Landmark Jailhouse
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Historians are still hoping to save the 71-year-old Salinas jailhouse from demolition after the Monterey County Board of Supervisors voted to tear it down to make way for offices.
The building has been empty for 20 years.
Some asked the supervisors to save the jail, saying it was culturally important because Cesar Chavez was jailed there in 1970 over a court order involving the right of strikers to assemble.
Robert Kennedy’s widow, Ethel, made her way through anti-union demonstrators in front of the jail to visit Chavez there.
But county officials say there are other memorials to Chavez, including a library and a school.
They say the old jail is structurally unstable, and filled with asbestos, mold and lead-based paint.
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