Old St. Louis County Courthouse Dome Photograph by Deena Stoddard

Old St. Louis County Courthouse Dome

by Deena Stoddard

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Title

Old St. Louis County Courthouse Dome

Artist

Deena Stoddard

Medium

Photograph - Photograph

Description

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.

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. Descendants of Chouteau and Lucas sued to regain ownership. In 1935, during the Great Depression, St. Louis voted a bond issue to raze nearly 40 blocks around the courthouse in the center 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 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 it's 1910 appearance while the west wing has Circuit Court #4 restored to an approximate 1850's detail.

Two notable cases were heard in this courthouse are:

In 1846 the slave Dred Scott 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 Old Courthouse. The case was ultimately decided by the U.S. Supreme Court in 1857 Dred Scott v. Sandford, 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, were held in this building. The United States Supreme Court 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.

All images © 2011-2020 Deena Stoddard ~ All Rights Reserved

Uploaded

September 19th, 2014

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