Old St Louis County Courthouse
From Wikipedia - 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.
Land for it was donated in 1816 by Judge John Baptiste Charles Lucas and St. Louis founder René Auguste Chouteau who required the land be "used forever as the site on which the courthouse of the County of St. Louis should be erected." The Federal-style building was designed by Lavielle and Morton and completed in 1828. As street commissioner in 1823-26, Joseph Laveille devised the city's street name grid with ordinal numbers for north-south streets and arboral names for the east-west streets. 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 centre. It had an overall theme was Greek Revival.
In 1846, slave Dred Scott sued for his freedom in the building based on the fact that he had lived in free states. All of the trials, including a Missouri Supreme Court hearing were held in the west wing. The case was to ultimately be decided by the US Supreme Court in 1856 in Dred Scott v. Sandford which ruled against him in 1856. The decision was to polarise sides in the run-up to the American Civil War.
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 remodelled after the Dred Scott hearings took place in it. In 1861 William Rumbold replaced a cupola with an Italian Renaissance cast iron Dome modeled on St. Peter's Basilica in Vatican City. The US 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'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, a US Supreme Court judge of the early 20th century, was admitted to the bar in the building in 1878. The courthouse was abandoned in 1930 when the Civil Courts Building was built and 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 centre 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 and 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, from which this photo was taken, was built in 1965.
Old St Louis County Courthouse
From Wikipedia - 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.
Land for it was donated in 1816 by Judge John Baptiste Charles Lucas and St. Louis founder René Auguste Chouteau who required the land be "used forever as the site on which the courthouse of the County of St. Louis should be erected." The Federal-style building was designed by Lavielle and Morton and completed in 1828. As street commissioner in 1823-26, Joseph Laveille devised the city's street name grid with ordinal numbers for north-south streets and arboral names for the east-west streets. 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 centre. It had an overall theme was Greek Revival.
In 1846, slave Dred Scott sued for his freedom in the building based on the fact that he had lived in free states. All of the trials, including a Missouri Supreme Court hearing were held in the west wing. The case was to ultimately be decided by the US Supreme Court in 1856 in Dred Scott v. Sandford which ruled against him in 1856. The decision was to polarise sides in the run-up to the American Civil War.
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 remodelled after the Dred Scott hearings took place in it. In 1861 William Rumbold replaced a cupola with an Italian Renaissance cast iron Dome modeled on St. Peter's Basilica in Vatican City. The US 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'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, a US Supreme Court judge of the early 20th century, was admitted to the bar in the building in 1878. The courthouse was abandoned in 1930 when the Civil Courts Building was built and 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 centre 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 and 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, from which this photo was taken, was built in 1965.