Old Courthouse (St. Louis)
| Old Courthouse, National Park Service site at Jefferson National Expansion Memorial | |
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| General information | |
| Type | Museum |
| Location | St. Louis, Missouri |
| Coordinates | 38°37′33″N 90°11′21″W / 38.62577°N 90.189257°WCoordinates: 38°37′33″N 90°11′21″W / 38.62577°N 90.189257°W |
| Construction started | 1816 |
| Completed | 1864 |
| Owner | Jefferson National Expansion Memorial |
| Height | |
| Roof | 192 ft (59 m) |
| Design and construction | |
| Architect | Henry Singleton (1839 renovation) Robert S. Mitchell (1851 renovation) William Rumbold (1864 dome) |
| References | |
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Old Courthouse
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| Location | St. Louis, Missouri |
| Built | 1828 |
| Part of | Jefferson National Expansion Memorial National Historic Site (#66000941) |
| Added to NRHP | October 15, 1966 |
The Old St. Louis County Courthouse was built as a combination federal and state courthouse in St. Louis, Missouri. Missouri's tallest habitable building from 1864 to 1894, it is now part of the Jefferson National Expansion Memorial and operated by the National Park Service for historical exhibits and events.
Land for the courthouse was donated in 1816 by Judge John Baptiste Charles Lucas and St. Louis founder Auguste Chouteau 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.
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. Lavielle and Morton was the first architecture firm west of the Mississippi River above New Orleans. As street commissioner in 1823–26 Joseph Laveille devised the city's street name grid, with ordinal numbers for north-south streets and arboreal names for the 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 style, with four wings, including an east wing that comprised the original courthouse and a three-story cupola 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 citizenship case was heard 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, built at the same time during the American Civil War, is also modeled on the basilica. The St. Louis dome was completed in 1864, and Karl Ferdinand Wimar was commissioned to paint murals, which are featured in the rotunda.
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Wikipedia