| Old Courthouse, National Park Service site at Gateway Arch National Park | |
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 Interactive map of the Old Courthouse, National Park Service site at Gateway Arch National Park area | |
| General information | |
| Type | Museum |
| Location | St. Louis, Missouri |
| Coordinates | 38°37′33″N90°11′21″W / 38.62577°N 90.189257°W /38.62577; -90.189257 |
| Construction started | 1816 |
| Completed | 1864 |
| Owner | Gateway Arch National Park |
| Height | |
| Roof | 192 ft (59 m) |
| Design and construction | |
| Architects |
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| Other information | |
| Public transit access |  MetroBus Red Blue At8th & Pine station |
| References | |
Old Courthouse | |
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| Location | St. Louis, Missouri |
| Built | 1828 |
| Part of | Gateway Arch National Historic Site (ID66000941[1]) |
| Added to NRHP | October 15, 1966 |
TheOld St. Louis County Courthouse was built as a combination federal and statecourthouse inSt. Louis, Missouri, United States.Missouri's tallest habitable building from 1864 to 1894, it is now part ofGateway Arch National Park and operated by theNational Park Service for historical exhibits and events.
Land for the courthouse was donated in 1816 by JudgeJohn Baptiste Charles Lucas and St. Louis founderAuguste Chouteau.[3] 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."[4] TheFederal style courthouse was completed in 1828.
It was designed by the firm of Laveille & Morton, which also designed the early buildings atJefferson Barracks as well as theOld Cathedral. Laveille & Morton was the first architecture firm west of the Mississippi River above New Orleans. As street commissioner in 1823–26, Joseph C. Laveille devised the city's street name grid, with ordinal numbers for north–south streets and arboreal names for east–west streets.[5]
Missouri became a state in 1821, and the St. Louis population tripled in 10 years. A new courthouse was soon needed. In 1839, ground was broken on a courthouse designed by Henry Singleton in theGreek Revival style, with four wings, including an east wing that comprised the original courthouse and a three-storycupola dome at the center.
In 1851, Robert S. Mitchell began a redesign of the courthouse in which the east wing was torn down and replaced. From 1855 to 1858, the west wing was remodeled. The famousDred Scott citizenship case was heard in the west wing before the remodeling.
In 1861, William Rumbold replaced the cupola with anItalian Renaissancecast iron dome modeled onSt. Peter's Basilica inVatican City. TheUnited States Capitol dome, built at the same time during theAmerican Civil War, is also modeled on the basilica. The St. Louis dome was completed in 1864, andKarl Ferdinand Wimar was commissioned to paint murals, which are featured in the rotunda.[6]
The last slave auction held at the Old Courthouse took place in 1861. Slave auctions were held in the Probate Courts of the Old Courthouse near the East Door. The Court ordered sales of slaves whose owners had died without a will or had declared bankruptcy. This was common practice in all Missouri courthouses.[7][8]
Rumbold's dome in the courthouse is wrought andcast iron with a copper exterior. Fourlunettes in the dome have paintings byCarl 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 Old Courthouse, in 1878.[9]
WhenSt. Louis County, Missouri and the city split in 1877, the courthouse became city property.[10] The courthouse was abandoned by the city in 1930 after it built theCivil Courts Building, and descendants of Chouteau and Lucas sued to regain ownership. In 1935, during theGreat Depression, St. Louis voted for a bond issue to raze nearly 40 blocks around the courthouse in the center of St. Louis for the new Gateway Arch National Park, which was then known asJefferson National Expansion Memorial. PresidentFranklin Roosevelt declared in anExecutive Order the area would be anational monument and landscape design, sidewalks and other infrastructure was added. The courthouse formally became part of the new monument area in 1940. Replaced in 1941, the roof was renovated in 1955, 1985 and 2010. The National Park Service maintains four history galleries on St. Louis and NPS offices within. The courthouse once had up to 12 courtrooms, but now there are two in period presentation. The east wing has Circuit Court #13 restored to its 1910 appearance, while the west wing has Circuit Court #4 restored to an approximate 1850s detail.[6]
The courthouse building was the tallest building in Missouri and St. Louis until 1896 whenUnion Station was built. It remained the largest structure in the national monument until theGateway Arch was built in 1965.
