Historical July 1986 report or notice. Original dates, prices and contacts describe the source period; current availability has not been established.
Construction on the original courthouse of St. Louis County began in 1826. That courthouse was torn down in 1851 to make room for what is now the east wing of the current Old Courthouse. Obviously, the current Old Courthouse is in fact the replacement for the real old county courthouse which was too small for the county courts virtually from the time it opened in 1828. Construction of the building now called the Old Courthouse began in 1839 and was completed in 1862 when the second dome and its lantern were put in place under the direction of the seventh architect for the project, William Rumbold, who also served as a consultant to the dome of the capital in Washington, D.C., which was completed nearly two years after its prototype in St. Louis.
The new permanent exhibitions of the Old Courthouse, opening formally in October, represent years of work and planning.
They focus totally on St. Louis history from the Mississippian Indian period through to the twentieth century.
The first exhibit is the Old Courthouse itself.
With the near completion of its renovation at a cost substantially larger than what it cost to first build it, it represents a major museum function in the heart of downtown. Within the renovated courtroom spaces on the first floor north and south wings, the permanent exhibits detail the evolution of St. Louis from its mound building days to the construction of the Gateway Arch.
Each of the four major rooms has spaces devoted to typical building exteriors, interiors, street scenes, business scenes, and environmental systems contrasted with what is present today just outside the windows of these rooms. Dioramas present the Creole homes of the early French traders, the warehouse of Manuel Lisa, the cast iron of the Civil War era, and the streets of the early automobile period at the turn of the century.
The rotunda balconies of the Old Courthouse are now being painted to their original opulence, a task which should be completed this summer, if everything goes well.
The major work yet remaining in the building is the restoration of the late nineteenth century paintings at the top of the interior dome above the rotunda. Expected to cost about $1 million, the job will take the better part of a year to complete once the funds are raised.
The Old Courthouse is part of a national park. Virtually all the funding for the exhibitions as well as the projected restoration of the interior dome paintings is from non-tax money.
The mixture of federal operating funds with non-federal program funds make the project possible in this time of austere military budgets.
As a matter of fact, the entire daily staff of the Old Courthouse as well as the basic staff of the Museum of Westward Expansion are non-federal employees of the historical association.
The growing use of non-federal sources to pay for major federal projects is typical of the changing pattern of federal withdrawal and the development of fee-based or earned-income-based programs.
The Old Courthouse, its exhibits and its renovation, would not be possible and open to the public without this mixture of funding sources, both federal and non-federal. Thus the exhibitions of the Old Courthouse are not only the largest museum space devoted to St. Louis history but also one of the best examples of the changing pattern of federal nonfunding for federal projects.
Originally published in The Times of Skinker-DeBaliviere, July 1986.
Read this article in the original newspaper issue.
Original source: SD_Times1986_07.pdf, printed page(s) 7; PDF page(s) 7.
