History on the Highway-

Spanish-style Building was once the California Highway Patrol office in the Merced Region

The former CHP district headquarters was housed in the Spanish Mission style building on 16th Street in Merced where KAMB radio’s studio in located now. Photo: CHP Archive

We know that the Spanish Mission-style building south of G Street on 16th Street in Merced is the home of KAMB radio.

But it was built for and had a long history as the headquarters of the California Highway Patrol's four-county district, serving Merced, Fresno, Madera, and Mariposa Counties.

CHP moved into the custom-designed building in 1934. It is the first state-owned building dedicated to CHP. Leadership at the time anticipated advancements in the relatively new era of radio communications, so the building was designed to accommodate these changes.

“Before that building, CHP was located in the basement of the old Merced County Library,” said Officer Eric Zuniga. “We were in the Library basement for five years.”

The library was in the old Merced County High School building at 2125 M Street in Merced. That building was originally the Merced Academy private school.

After six years, the Merced Academy building was used as Merced County High School, the first public high school in the district, in 1903. The County Library moved there in 1921. 

The view from the front door at the former CHP facility on 16th Street in Merced. Photo: Steve Newvine

The tower or turret room on the 16th location was notable.

It was built to serve as a radio room but was never used for that purpose. The steep stairway leading up to the top of the tower proved too much of a challenge for bulky radio equipment.

While that building feature intended for radio communication was scrapped, the building served the four-county CHP district for twenty-nine years.

Captain William Burch was the CHP Merced Regional Headquarters Commander from 1929 to 1965. Photo: CHP Archive

Throughout all those years, the district headquarters was under the command of one person: Captain William Burch.

Captain Burch headed the district command from 1929 through 1965.

He likely had a hand in the design features of the 16th Street facility.

Space requirements for an ever-growing CHP forced a move to a larger facility near Childs Avenue and Highway 99. That building served the agency for another three decades. CHP now operates a six-thousand-square-foot facility in Atwater.  

The building is now the home of KAMB Radio, a Christian music station. Offices that once housed CHP personnel are now occupied by radio station staff. The station’s studios offer a view of 16th Street.

The KAMB radio studios have windows that look out onto 16th Street, the original highway 99. Photo: Steve Newvine

KAMB has been at this site since beginning broadcasting in Merced in 1967. Station Manager Chris Grant likes the idea that their studios once served as the district headquarters for the CHP.

“You can still see elements from the building from when CHP was here,” Chris says, pointing to a gate believed to have been installed when the facility was built and two reflector posts that he believes were part of the original construction.

The radio station found the same challenge in that tower turret room as CHP. Navigating the spiral stairs that lead up to the room requires a lot of work. While CHP abandoned early plans to house radio communications in the small turret room, KAMB uses the room for storage only.

The turret tower on the former CHP Merced headquarters was formed as a seven-point star, a symbol of the CHP. Photo: Steve Newvine

The building will always have a claim to California history as the first state-owned CHP district headquarters.

There’s no historical marker on the property, but from 16th Street, there is a symbol of the building’s connection to the law enforcement organization.  

The window of the turret tower is shaped like the seven-point star symbolizing the CHP.

It’s another piece of the past that remains intact on historic Highway 99.

Steve Newvine lives in Merced.  

He thanks CHP Officer Eric Zuniga for background information and archive photos and to Chris Grant at KAMB Radio for access to provide updated photos of the building as it stands today.   

He is also indebted to County Librarian Amy Taylor for providing information about the old Merced County Library. Amy retrieved information from the book “An Early History of the Merced County Free Library 1901-1976” by Kathleen L. Brantley-Gutierrez, M.L.I.S. c. 2006, 2009.

Steve’s new book Beaten Paths & Back Roads is available for sale at the Merced County Courthouse Museum Gift Shop or online at https://www.lulu.com/shop/steve-newvine/beaten-paths-and-back-roads/paperback/product-emmv6r.html?q=beaten+paths+steve+newvine&page=1&pageSize=4

Seven from the Wall-

Remembering Soldiers Listed on the Vietnam Memorial- Wall that Heals

By Steve Newvine

The Wall that Heals on display in front of Merced College. Photo: Steve Newvine

There are over fifty-eight thousand names on the “Wall that Heals”.

This column is about seven of them.

The Merced community has been honored to host the Wall that Heals, the three-quarter representation of the Vietnam War Memorial.

The Merced Breakfast Rotary Club, the group that started the Field of Honor flag tribute on the grounds of Merced College over the past several years, was primarily responsible for getting the traveling exhibit to the community.

For the few days leading up to and including Easter Sunday, the wall allowed many of us to honor the brave soldiers who were killed in action during the Vietnam War.

My family had a soldier who fought and came home from Vietnam. US Army Specialist Four William Newvine served in 1966 and 1967. He made it back but was killed nine months later in an automobile crash.

I wrote about Bill both in this space and in a book (Finding Bill, Lulu Press). He did not talk much about the experience, and I was too young to probe.

Only in my later years, with the help of a man who has made it his life work to honor those who served in the same company as my uncle, did I get to piece together his story. 

As I wrote my book, he connected me with soldiers who knew my uncle. When I told him I was going to Washington, D.C., on business, he asked if I would check in on seven soldiers named on the wall. The book tells the stories of the men who knew my uncle and those from his unit who were killed in action.  

Here is a summary of seven of the more than fifty-eight thousand brave soldiers honored on the wall.

Seven soldiers who served alongside my uncle in Vietnam and who lost their lives on the battlefield. Photos from the Vietnam Veterans Memorial Fund (vvmf.org). Photo illustration by Steve Newvine

Armand Auffiere, Donald Evans, and John Faidley were killed on January 27, 1967, in the jungle about two miles from their base camp, attacking a bunker complex manned by Vietcong.

Their unit was hit hard, with two platoons devastated and a third going inactive for weeks after this battle.

Don is the first Medic to receive the Congressional Medal of Honor.

Two medical buildings are named in his honor.

Joseph Noel died Jan 14, 1967. He was killed by artillery rounds that were accidentally sent into his column in response to a fire mission called when the Vietcong were spotted near a rubber plantation.

Tom Nickerson and Clint Smith were killed on March 15, 1967, when attacked while dumping garbage by Vietcong rummaging through the area looking for anything useful. The dump area had been moved, and the new site had no security to protect the men.

Larry Barton was killed on March 21, 1967, at the height of the conflict known as the Battle of Suoi Tre. He was filling in a foxhole as his unit was moving out.

The company was part of a mission that came to the rescue of a firebase that was close to being overrun by the enemy on that day.  

The battle was successful but at a tremendous cost. Larry was among thirty-one Americans killed. It’s estimated the enemy lost eight hundred soldiers, although the official count was six hundred forty-four.

The unit received the Presidential Unit Citation, a prestigious award only ever given during the Battle of the Bulge in World War II.

My uncle knew these men. He even wrote about Tom and Clint in a letter to his sister, Betty. Thankfully, images of those letters have been saved.

The Wall that Heals at night in front of Merced College. Photo: Steve Newvine

The pictures of the seven men who served alongside my uncle were found at the website for the Vietnam Veterans Memorial Fund. 

I learned a lot about these men thanks to the dedication of Bill Comeau, who runs the Alpha Association, which connects veterans, especially those from the Vietnam era.

Bill was a company clerk in the War and knew of my uncle. He recalled when he saw Bill Newvine return from a harrowing mission.

“The look on these men’s faces was that of sheer terror. But not Bill. He had a look of serenity, a calmness that communicated maybe he knew more than the rest of us.”  

My uncle Bill Newvine and one of the letters he wrote to family members in my hometown of Port Leyden, New York. Photo: Steve Newvine

Bill Newvine died more than a decade before the Vietnam Memorial opened. I always believed that he would have visited Washington, DC, to pay his respects to his fellow soldiers.  

Losing someone you know is hard enough. Losing seven who served under the conditions of war is hard for many of us to imagine.

I made that visit for him in 2012 in Washington, DC, and this year here in Merced at the Wall that Heals.

Steve Newvine lives in Merced.

His book Finding Bill is still available at Finding Bill - A Nephew’s Search for Meaning in his Uncle’s Life and Death (lulu.com)

Steve is grateful to the Vietnam Veterans Memorial Fund and its website vmf.org for information and pictures of the seven soldiers who served with his uncle in Vietnam and who lost their lives in the War.