Dade County Courthouse
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Miami-Dade County Courthouse
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Miami-Dade County Courthouse
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| Location | Miami, Florida |
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| Coordinates | 25°46′28.74″N 80°11′42.6″W / 25.7746500°N 80.195167°WCoordinates: 25°46′28.74″N 80°11′42.6″W / 25.7746500°N 80.195167°W |
| Built | 1925-1928 |
| Architect | A. Ten Eyck Brown and August Geiger |
| Architectural style | Classical Revival |
| MPS | Downtown Miami MRA |
| NRHP Reference # | 88002983 |
| Added to NRHP | January 4, 1989 |
The Miami-Dade County Courthouse, formerly known as the Dade County Courthouse, is a historic courthouse located at 73 West Flagler Street in Miami, Florida. Constructed over four years (1925–28), it was added to the U.S. National Register of Historic Places on January 4, 1989. The building is 361 feet tall with 28 floors. When it was built, it was the tallest building in Miami and in Florida.
It is still in use as the main civil courthouse of Miami-Dade County.
When county government was established following the Civil War, public records were so sparse they could be carried in a carpetbag and most probably were. Therefore, the "courthouse" was wherever the county's chief office holder decided to do business.
In 1890, Dade County's first courthouse stood in the town of Juno, Florida some ten miles north of West Palm Beach. At that time, Dade County covered more territory than it does today, stretching from Bahia Honda Key, in the middle Keys, up to the St. Lucie River, near present-day Port St. Lucie.
Juno was chosen as the "county seat" because of its strategic location at the southern terminus of the Jupiter-Juno railroad. Juno also held the northern terminus of the boat and connecting stagecoach line to Miami. The courthouse remained in Juno (now no longer in existence) until 1899, when it was moved to Miami down the inland waterway on a barge and was placed on the banks of the Miami River, east of the old Miami Avenue bridge.
The building was two story wooden frame construction, housing offices and jail cells on the ground floor and a courtroom on the second floor.It has a Neoclassical design,in 1904 this building was replaced by a new courthouse building situated on Flagler Street (then known as Twelfth Street). It was a magnificent building constructed of limestone, having an elegant red-domed top, at the cost of $47,000. It was anticipated that this courthouse would serve the city for at least fifty years; however, no one was prepared for the rapid growth Miami experienced during this period, and by 1924, only twenty years later, there was serious talk of the need for a larger courthouse.
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