The Old Courthouse
Broadway and Market Street
Original building, 1820s;
Henry Singleton, 1839-1845;
Robert S. Mitchell, 1852-1862;
William Rumbold, 1860-1864
Status: Restored and in use as a National Park Service museum.

A singular and defining monument for downtown St. Louis, the Court House is most famous as the site of the Dred Scott decision, one of the precipitating events of the Civil War. Unfortunately, it stands alone, visually isolated from the city and cut off from nearly all its historical context.

Locator Map

A tinted photo postcard view of the Courthouse, post-1908. Arrayed behind the Old Courthouse are buildings that then constituted "modern St. Louis": the Times Building, the Planter's Hotel and the Pierce Building.

Postcard view circa 1940, looking east, from a similar vantage point as the previous image. Of the nine buildings visible in this image, only the Old Court House survives today.

Roughly the same view today, from the Arch grounds.

The Old Courthouse and its environs, 1981 - view from the Gateway Arch, photograph by Flickr user kocojim.

The Old Courthouse and its environs, 2008 - view from the Gateway Arch. The Title Guaranty and Buder buildings are gone; the Eagleton Courthouse and the One Bell Center have risen; the Old Courthouse remains virtually unchanged.