December 6, 1939 - 75 years-ago today, the U.S. Department of the Interior accepted the Old Courthouse as a gift from the City of St Louis, agreeing to include it in the Jefferson National Expansion Memorial, to be administered by the National Park Service. The Old Courthouse sits on land donated to St. Louis County in 1816 by Auguste Chouteau and Judge John B. C. Lucas, five years before Missouri became a state. Although they were political enemies, they both agreed that a centrally located courthouse was important to the citys future. The term,centrally located might sound strange to us today, but an indication of just how small the city was at that time. The deed (shown here), was written on parchment using black ink, & signed by Thomas Sappington, William Carr Lane, Pierre Chouteau, Auguste Chouteau, Cerre Chouteau and John B. Lucas. Four other important dates that appear on the document are December 14, 1822, the date when the Missouri State Act appointing a commission to select a site for the courthouse was signed. August 25, 1823 (date the site was selected); September, 1823 (date the deed was executed); and December 11, 1825 (date the deed was recorded). The first courthouse on the site was completed in 1828. But in less than a decade, it had already become too small to handle the city’s rapidly growing population, & construction began on what we now call the Old Courthouse in 1839. The original Courthouse was incorporated into the new building, becoming the East Wing, but when it underwent extensive remodeling in the 1850s, that wing was torn down. The renovations included a new dome, modeled after St. Peter’s Basilica in Rome, & now 192 feet tall, the Courthouse became the tallest habitable building in Missouri until 1894. The original deed contained a stipulation that the site always by used for a county courthouse. But the City stopped using it as a Courthouse in June, 1930, after the new Civil Courts Building was completed, & in July of that year, Charles Lucas of St Louis & Auguste A. Chouteau, of Santa Monica, California filed suit with the Missouri Supreme Court on behalf of the descendants of the Chouteau and Lucas families. Based upon the original agreement between their ancestors and St. Louis County, they claimed the Old Courthouse and its property should revert back to them because it was no longer used for its original purpose. On December 16, 1932, the court ruled against the families and the courthouse was to remain city property. In fairness to those filing the lawsuit, their action wasnt based on greed. Since it was no longer in use, they were afraid it would be torn down. Between 1930-1940, the Old Courthouse was used by an art school and a workshop for a religious organization that refurbished toys for needy children. It also served as offices for two justices of the peace and their constables. The original 1828 Courthouse was designed by the architectural firm of Lavielle and Morton, who had also designed the Old Cathedral. One of the partners, Joseph Laveille, had served as City Street Commissioner from 1823–26, & was the one who devised the citys street naming pattern, with numbers for north-south streets and using the names of trees for the east-west streets.
Posted on: Sat, 06 Dec 2014 06:01:50 +0000
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