Old Courthouse
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| Old Courthouse | |
 |
|
| Information | |
|---|---|
| Location | St. Louis, Missouri |
| Coordinates | |
| Status | Completed |
| Groundbreaking | 1816 |
| Constructed | 1864 |
| Use | Museum |
| Roof | 192 feet |
| Companies | |
| Architect | Henry Singleton (1839 renovation) Robert S. Mitchell (1851 renovation) William Rumbold (1864 dome) |
| Owner | Jefferson National Expansion Memorial |
The Old Courthouse (officially called the Old St. Louis County Courthouse) was a combination federal and state courthouse in St. Louis, Missouri that was Missouri's tallest habitable building from 1864 to 1894 and now is part of the Jefferson National Expansion Memorial.
Contents |
[edit] History
Land for the courthouse was donated in 1816 by Judge John Baptiste Charles Lucas and St. Louis founder René Auguste Chouteau[1] Lucas and Chouteau required the land be "used forever as the site on which the courthouse of the County of St. Louis should be erected."[2] The Federal style courthouse was completed in 1828.
It was designed by the firm of Lavielle and Morton, which also designed the early buildings at Jefferson Barracks as well as the Old Cathedral. The firm is reported to the first architect firm west of the Mississippi River above New Orleans. Joseph Laveille as street commissioner in 1823-26 was the one who devised the city's street name grid with ordinal numbers for north south streets and arboral names for the east-west streets.[3]
Missouri became a state in 1821 and St. Louis population tripled in 10 years.
In 1839 ground was broken on a courthouse designed by Henry Singleton with four wings including an east wing that comprised the original courthouse and a three-story cupola dome at the center. It had an overall theme was Greek Revival.
In 1851 Robert S. Mitchell began a redesign in which the original courthouse portion on the east wing was torn down and replaced by a new east wing.
From 1855 to 1858 the west wing was remodeled with the Dred Scott hearings taking place in the west wing before the remodeling.
In 1861 William Rumbold replaced a cupola with an Italian Renaissance cast iron Dome modeled on St. Peter's Basilica in Vatican City. The United States Capitol dome which was built at the same time during the American Civil War is also modeled on the basilica. The St. Louis dome was completed in 1864.
Rumbold in 1869 was to design the Missouri State Hospital (also called the St. Louis County Insane Asylum or City Sanitarium) which also features a dome and its location at 5400 Arsenal is the highest point in St. Louis.[4]
Rumbold's dome in the courthouse is wrought and cast iron with a copper exterior. Four lunettes in the dome having paintings by Carl Wimar depicting four events in St. Louis history. Ettore Miragoli painted over them in 1880 but they were restored in 1888.
Louis Brandeis was admitted to the bar in the building in 1878.[5]
The courthouse building was the tallest building in Missouri and St. Louis until 1896 when Union Station (St. Louis) was built.
The courthouse was abandoned in 1930 when the Civil Courts Building was built. Descendents of Chouteau and Lucas sued to regain ownership. In 1935 St. Louis voted a bond issue to raze nearly 40 blocks around the courthouse in the center of St. Louis for the new Jefferson National Expansion Memorial. President Franklin Roosevelt declared in an Executive Order the area would be a national monument. The courthouse formally became part of the new monument area in 1940.
The roof was replaced in 1941 and rehabilitated again in 1955 and 1985.
The courthouse remained the largest structure in the monument until the Gateway Arch was built in 1965.
[edit] Notable cases
- In 1846 slave Dred Scott sued for his freedom in the building based on the fact that they had lived in free states. All of the trials including a Missouri Supreme Court hearing were held in the building. The case was to ultimately be decided by the U.S. Supreme Court in 1856 Dred Scott v. Sandford which ruled against him in 1856. The decision was to polarize sides in the run up to the American Civil War.
- In the 1872 Virginia Minor attempted to vote in a St. Louis election and was arrested. Her trials including the deliberations before Missouri Supreme Court were held in the building. The case was eventually appealed to the United States Supreme Court in Minor v. Happersett which upheld the male only voting rules.
[edit] References
- ^ The NPS site says the donation was from "Auguste Chouteau." Several members of the Chouteau clan have that name. It could also mean Auguste Pierre Chouteau.
- ^ Old Courthouse Architecture - nps.gov - Retrieved January 8, 2008
- ^ Laveille and Morton - stlcin.missouri.org - Retrieved January 21, 2008
- ^ The Hill - stlouis.missouri.org - Retrieved January 8, 2008
- ^ Jefferson National Expansion Memorial application for National Register of Historic Places - dnr.mo.gov
[edit] External links
- NPS Old Court House
- The Old Courthouse in St. Louis: Yesterday and Today, a National Park Service Teaching with Historic Places (TwHP) lesson plan
| Preceded by Beginning of records |
Tallest Building in St. Louis 1864—1894 192 feet |
Succeeded by Union Station (St. Louis) |
| Preceded by Beginning of records |
Missouri's Tallest Building 1864—1894 192 feet |
Succeeded by Union Station (St. Louis) |
