Living in the courthouse

He was asked once. He was asked again, then finally on the third call Paul Dragoo felt he should maybe give it some consideration. 

“I thought it was the craziest thing,” Paul said. “I was just an old farm kid.” But he admits it was one of the best jobs!

He had been working for the county as an assistant foreman, when his “boss” (also a friend and neighbor) called and wanted to know if he was interested in interviewing for the custodian job. The Board of Supervisors, of which his friend was serving on, was looking to fill the position.

“The first time, we (Rosie and I) just laughed,” he said. Then the idea began to sink in. 

“We made a list this long,” said Rosie, stretching her hands over a foot and a half apart. A list of questions about the job itself and the living quarters. Custodians at the time lived inside the Courthouse. They would be moving from their single-family home to not just an ordinary apartment, but one inside an office building. There would be no back yard to kick back and enjoy warm summer days. A problem they would eventually remedy by purchasing a camper for weekend get-aways.

“The only real thing we disagreed on was the washer and dryer in the basement four floors down.” But the Social Services office on the top floor would be moving into a new building and that freed up a laundry area in the apartment. Problem solved.

So in March of 1981, the couple moved from their rural home southeast of Ogden, to the fourth floor of the Boone County Courthouse.

It was pretty expensive to live there,” Paul said, then broke out into a grin. Rent and utilities were included in his pay. The only cost they had, he said, was long-distance phone calls.

It was a unique apartment to say the least. The living quarters occupied three rooms on the north end of the building - and was divided into a kitchen, two bedrooms and a living/dining room the size of a small banquet hall. And that is precisely how they utilized that space. They hosted church social functions, Valentine parties, family dinners and what everyone working at the Courthouse remembers, her Christmas dinners.

“We moved all but three pieces of furniture from the room, then borrowed tables and chairs from other parts of the building,” they told. Each table was decorated, not necessarily with matching table cloths, but the atmosphere was very festive. Paul helped with the decorations, some years stringing Christmas lights in the arched windows. She provided the main dish and always treated them to her homemade pies. Everyone was invited, even the judge, who Rosie at first didn’t really consider an employee, and that first year initially had “forgotten” to invite him.

Read more in the April 25 issue of The Ogden Reporter.