The Room Where It Happened: The Old St. Louis Courthouse

St. Louis, Missouri — It’s not often one gets to sit in an historic chair that changed history, but in the newly refurbished St. Louis County Courthouse, you can do just that. Upstairs on the second-floor is the original courtroom where Dred and Harriet Scott were affirmed, during two trials, to be an enslaved couple in 1847. This event was just one factor leading up to the Civil War. The Scotts were eventually freed by Taylor Blow, a local businessman.

Originally built in 1839, the courthouse just reopened a year ago, following a $27.5 million restoration, part of the $380 million renovation of Gateway Arch National Park. The project created a public land bridge, now called Kiener Plaza, over the top of Interstate 70 and a for-real underground railroad. The park, at 91 acres, sees about 2.5 million visitors a year, who visit the newly refurbished exhibits and plaza, and ride the tram to the top of the 1965, 630-foot arch.

The courthouse is a classic four-wing Greek Revival building with four wings and a three-story dome. A comprehensive renovation begun in 2021 was completed a year ago.

“We see about 300 to 500 visitors a day,” says Acting Superintendent Pam Sanfilippo, as she describes the building's improvements through the past six years. There are new windows, modern heating and cooling systems, replacing the ancient radiators

An active fire suppression system protects the historic structure, as well as accessibility improvements with an elevator, ramps and handrails. All the original historic woodwork, ceilings, floorings and decorative features were carefully restored. American flags once hung from the dome, and will once again, once engineering on the suspension system is completed, says Sanfilippo.

The inside of the dome is adorned with four lunette paintings of historic Saint Louis events, U.S. presidents and other notables. Giant stone blocks still pave the floor. 

Among the four new exhibits, the Designed for Justice Exhibit educates visitors about the building’s history. The Pathways to Freedom display showcases the African American life in St. Louis, and the Dred and Harriet Scott exhibit describes the legal battle and timeline of their fight for freedom. The See You in Court describes the U.S. court system, as well as its highlights. Louis Brandeis, who went on to the United States Supreme Court, was admitted to the bar here in 1878, and Virginia Minor’s legal battle for a woman’s right to vote came to trial in the 1870s.

The Old Courthouse is also listed in the National Park Service's National Underground Railroad Network to Freedom, which describes its time as a part of the Underground Railroad, which led slaves to freedom. It was a public forum as well as a courthouse, and saw hundreds of suits for freedom. Enslaved people were auctioned from its steps in estate settlements as late as 1861,

Gateway Arch Park Superintendent Jeremy Sweat oversees 150 employees, on 91 acres, and wrote of the Old Courthouse: “It is a human rights site and a site of conscience, where the American people can remember and learn about our past to help ensure a more just and humane future for all people.”

The Remigerdesign group, who planned the renovation saw inclusiveness as a key factor, made sure people with disabilities were all welcome. And, as part of new guidelines, a number of items have been submitted from the Old Courthouse for review, under the new DEI initiative, but have not yet been approved, according to Sanfilippo.

Across the new plaza at the Gateway Arch itself, there are all new exhibits, an accessible sunken entry, and even plans in the future to expand the park across the Mississippi River in Illinois. The 630 foot arch was originally built from 1963 to 1965 to commemorate President Thomas Jefferson’s vision as the gateway to the American West, and in 2018 it was renamed from Jefferson National Expansion Memorial.to Gateway Arch National Park. It is, for its size, one of the busiest sites in the entire national park system.

The renovation of the Gateway Arch and Old Courthouse was a cooperative venture between private, federal, state and local entities, including the National Park Service, Missouri Department of Transportation, Gateway Arch Park Foundation, and many others. It was the largest private-public partnership in the National Park Service’s history.