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Name:  Municipal Courts Building, Old
Address:  12th and Clark Streets
Year:  1870
Date of Demolition:  1907
Architectural Firm/Architect:  Thomas Walsh
Standard Architectural Styles:  Second Empire
Front facade:  Stone, ashlar
Property Type Codes:  Government
Alterations:  Mansard roofs were removed 1905, and replaced with flat roofs due to problems with leakage.
Ward:  7
Neighborhood:  35
History:
Also known as the Four Courts Building, it was constructed between 1869-1870 of buff limestone. Built to house the four municipal courts of St. Louis, the Police Department and the jail, the three-story building had a large central section with two wings terminating in mansard-roofed towers with decorative stone dormers. The projecting central section was topped by a high quadrilateral dome crowned with an ornate cupola. The building featured a rusticated first-story and corners. It had tall arched windows on the first two stories, with smaller arched windows with decorative projecting hoods on the third story of the wings. The third story windows on the end towers had pedimented window hoods. The building also features pedimented porticos on the end towers and a large three-story portico at the main central entrance. Columns adorned the interior of the central section beneath the dome. A massive domed ampitheather behind the building housed the jail and was constructed of iron. The building also house the morgue and gallows [Barkley 53, 54; Lowic 108, 109].




People
Walsh, Thomas Waryng

Events
Municipal Courts Building Constructed

Reference
Architectural Heritage of St. Louis, 1803-1891
 St. Louis Lost: Uncovering the City's Lost Architecture

 

 

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