The Old St. Louis County Courthouse was built as a combination federal and state courthouse in

St. Louis, Missouri St. Louis () is the second-largest city in Missouri, United States. It sits near the confluence of the Mississippi and the Missouri Rivers. In 2020, the city proper had a population of 301,578, while the bi-state metropolitan area, which e ...

. Missouri's tallest habitable building from 1864 to 1894, it is now part of

Gateway Arch National Park Gateway Arch National Park is an American national park located in St. Louis, Missouri, near the starting point of the Lewis and Clark Expedition. The memorial was established to commemorate: *the Louisiana Purchase and subsequent westward mo ...

and operated by the

National Park Service The National Park Service (NPS) is an agency of the United States federal government within the U.S. Department of the Interior that manages all national parks, most national monuments, and other natural, historical, and recreational propert ...

for historical exhibits and events.

History

Land for the courthouse was donated in 1816 by Judge

John Baptiste Charles Lucas John Baptiste Charles Lucas (August 14, 1758 – August 17, 1842) was a French-born member of the U.S. House of Representatives from Pennsylvania. After meeting Benjamin Franklin, Lucas was so inspired—and so impatient with class injustices in ...

and St. Louis founder

Auguste Chouteau René-Auguste Chouteau, Jr. (September 7, 1749, or September 26, 1750 – February 24, 1829Beckwith, 8.), also known as Auguste Chouteau, was the founder of St. Louis, Missouri, a successful fur trader and a politician. He and his partner had a m ...

. 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." The Federal style courthouse was completed in 1828. St louis courthouse rotunda

It was designed by the firm of Laveille & Morton, which also designed the early buildings at

Jefferson Barracks The Jefferson Barracks Military Post is located on the Mississippi River at Lemay, Missouri, south of St. Louis. It was an important and active U.S. Army installation from 1826 through 1946. It is the oldest operating U.S. military installation ...

as well as the Old 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. 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 the

Greek Revival The Greek Revival was an architectural movement which began in the middle of the 18th century but which particularly flourished in the late 18th and early 19th centuries, predominantly in northern Europe and the United States and Canada, but a ...

style, with four wings, including an east wing that comprised the original courthouse and a three-story

cupola In architecture, a cupola () is a relatively small, most often dome-like, tall structure on top of a building. Often used to provide a lookout or to admit light and air, it usually crowns a larger roof or dome. The word derives, via Italian, fro ...

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 famous

Dred Scott Dred Scott (c. 1799 – September 17, 1858) was an enslaved African American man who, along with his wife, Harriet, unsuccessfully sued for freedom for themselves and their two daughters in the '' Dred Scott v. Sandford'' case of 1857, popula ...

citizenship case was heard in the west wing before the remodeling. Courthouse Dome, St

In 1861, William Rumbold replaced the cupola with an

Italian Renaissance The Italian Renaissance ( it, Rinascimento ) was a period in Italian history covering the 15th and 16th centuries. The period is known for the initial development of the broader Renaissance culture that spread across Europe and marked the trans ...

cast iron Cast iron is a class of iron– carbon alloys with a carbon content more than 2%. Its usefulness derives from its relatively low melting temperature. The alloy constituents affect its color when fractured: white cast iron has carbide impur ...

dome modeled on

St. Peter's Basilica The Papal Basilica of Saint Peter in the Vatican ( it, Basilica Papale di San Pietro in Vaticano), or simply Saint Peter's Basilica ( la, Basilica Sancti Petri), is a church built in the Renaissance style located in Vatican City, the papal e ...

Vatican City Vatican City (), officially the Vatican City State ( it, Stato della Città del Vaticano; la, Status Civitatis Vaticanae),—' * german: Vatikanstadt, cf. '—' (in Austria: ') * pl, Miasto Watykańskie, cf. '—' * pt, Cidade do Vati ...

. The

United States Capitol The United States Capitol, often called The Capitol or the Capitol Building, is the seat of the legislative branch of the United States federal government, which is formally known as the United States Congress. It is located on Capitol Hill ...

dome, built at the same time during the

American Civil War The American Civil War (April 12, 1861 – May 26, 1865; also known by other names) was a civil war in the United States. It was fought between the Union ("the North") and the Confederacy ("the South"), the latter formed by states ...

, is also modeled on the basilica. The St. Louis dome was completed in 1864, and

Karl Ferdinand Wimar Karl Ferdinand Wimar (also known as Charles Wimar and Carl Wimar; 20 February 1828 – 28 November 1862), was a German-American painter who concentrated on Native Americans in the West and the great herds of buffalo. He is known for an early ...

was commissioned to paint murals, which are featured in the rotunda."Old Courthouse"
National Park Service 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. Rumbold's dome in the courthouse is wrought and

with a copper exterior. Four lunettes in the dome have paintings by

Carl Wimar Karl Ferdinand Wimar (also known as Charles Wimar and Carl Wimar; 20 February 1828 – 28 November 1862), was a German-American painter who concentrated on Native Americans in the West and the great herds of buffalo. He is known for an early ...

, 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. When St. Louis County, Missouri and the city split in 1877, the courthouse became city property. The courthouse was abandoned by the city in 1930 after it built the

Civil Courts Building The Civil Courts Building is a landmark court building used by the 22nd Judicial Circuit Court of Missouri in St. Louis, Missouri. The building with its pyramid shaped roof is prominently featured in the center of photos of the Gateway Arch from ...

, and descendants of Chouteau and Lucas sued to regain ownership. In 1935, during the Great 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 as

Jefferson National Expansion Memorial Gateway Arch National Park is an American national park located in St. Louis, Missouri, near the starting point of the Lewis and Clark Expedition. The memorial was established to commemorate: *the Louisiana Purchase and subsequent westward mov ...

. President Franklin Roosevelt declared in an

Executive Order In the United States, an executive order is a directive by the president of the United States that manages operations of the federal government. The legal or constitutional basis for executive orders has multiple sources. Article Two of t ...

the area would be a national 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. The courthouse building was the tallest building in Missouri and St. Louis until 1896 when

Union Station A union station (also known as a union terminal, a joint station in Europe, and a joint-use station in Japan) is a railway station at which the tracks and facilities are shared by two or more separate railway companies, allowing passengers to ...

was built. It remained the largest structure in the national monument until the

Gateway Arch The Gateway Arch is a monument in St. Louis, Missouri, United States. Clad in stainless steel and built in the form of a weighted catenary arch, it is the world's tallest arch and Missouri's tallest accessible building. Some sources consider ...

was built in 1965.

Notable cases

*In 1846 the slave

sued for his and his wife's freedom as they had been held as slaves in free states. All of the trials, including a Missouri Supreme Court hearing, were held in the Old Courthouse. The case was ultimately decided by the U.S. Supreme Court in 1857 ''

Dred Scott v. Sandford ''Dred Scott v. Sandford'', 60 U.S. (19 How.) 393 (1857), was a landmark decision of the United States Supreme Court that held the U.S. Constitution did not extend American citizenship to people of black African descent, enslaved or free; th ...

'', which ruled against the Scotts, saying they did not have grounds as citizens to sue. *In 1872 Virginia Minor attempted to vote in a St. Louis election and was arrested. Her trials, including the deliberations before the

Missouri Supreme Court The Supreme Court of Missouri is the highest court in the state of Missouri. It was established in 1820 and is located at 207 West High Street in Jefferson City, Missouri. Missouri voters have approved changes in the state's constitution to give ...

, were held in this building. The

United States Supreme Court The Supreme Court of the United States (SCOTUS) is the highest court in the federal judiciary of the United States. It has ultimate appellate jurisdiction over all U.S. federal court cases, and over state court cases that involve a point o ...

in '' Minor v. Happersett'' (1875) upheld the male-only voting rules, as the Constitution did not address voting rules, which were set by the states.

In popular culture

*In Season 3 of the TV series '' The Last Ship'', the Old Courthouse becomes the new

White House The White House is the official residence and workplace of the president of the United States. It is located at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue NW in Washington, D.C., and has been the residence of every U.S. president since John Adams in ...

and the base of operations for the reformed

United States government The federal government of the United States (U.S. federal government or U.S. government) is the national government of the United States, a federal republic located primarily in North America, composed of 50 states, a city within a feder ...

in the post-plague days of the Red Flu. *The courthouse is destroyed in the disaster films '' Supernova'' and ''

The Black Hole ''The Black Hole'' is a 1979 American science fiction film directed by Gary Nelson and produced by Walt Disney Productions. The film stars Maximilian Schell, Robert Forster, Joseph Bottoms, Yvette Mimieux, Anthony Perkins and Ernest Borgnin ...

''. *The Old Courthouse is featured on many of Saint Louis's Architectural tours.

Gallery

Image:The Old Courthouse, Saint Louis, Missouri.JPG Image:Oldcourthouse ballpark.jpg, Seen from

Busch Stadium Busch Stadium (also referred to informally as "New Busch Stadium" or "Busch Stadium III") is a baseball stadium located in St. Louis, Missouri. The stadium serves as the home of the St. Louis Cardinals, the city's Major League Baseball (M ...

File:Old Courthouse St. Louis, Missouri.jpg, Seen from the top of the Gateway Arch File:StLouisArchMultExpCDR.jpg, File:Old St. Louis Courthouse A.JPG, File:Jefferson National Expansion Memorial, Angled.jpg, park entrance sign

References

External links