Potter Stewart United States Courthouse
Encyclopedia
The Potter Stewart United States Courthouse is a courthouse
and federal building of the United States government located in Cincinnati, Ohio
, and housing the headquarters of the United States District Court for the Southern District of Ohio
and the United States Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit
. Completed in 1938, it was renamed for Supreme Court
Justice Potter Stewart
in 1994.
The existing courthouse was at the time of its construction, Cincinnati's third Federal Building. The site for the first - the southwest corner of Fourth and Vine Streets - was bought in 1851 in response to a general demand in the city that scattered Federal offices be assembled. Construction of that first building took seven years and cost $339,183. Then, after 27 years of use, the site and structure were sold in 1879 for $100,000 to make way for the Merchants' Exchange.
Even before the Government became responsive to the growing city's demand for a larger building and began to take an interest in Fifth Street as a site, the section now embraced by Fountain Square and Government Square had assumed historic importance. Three Presidents - James Monroe
, Andrew Jackson
and John Quincy Adams
- had visited it. Abraham Lincoln
had spoken there. The fountain and esplanade were installed in the early 1870's, becoming leading attractions of the city. It seemed a good place for a Federal Building, then as now. However, business men in the "Bottoms" complained when the move to Fifth Street was proposed. They contended Fifth Street was too far from the business center of the city.
The site for the United States Custom House and Post Office
was acquired by condemnation
and cost the Government $708,026. The act authorizing construction of a new building was passed by Congress, March 18, 1872, and signed by President Ulysses S. Grant
immediately, but it was not until April, 1874, that the last of the business houses on the land had been torn down. Excavation for foundations, done entirely by hand labor, required another year. In all, it took 11 years to complete construction. Its cost was $5,088,328.
Nearly half a century went by, and then again, in the 1930's, the demand arose for suitable and adequate quarters for the growing services of the Federal Government in Cincinnati. The old building, completed in 1885 to house 27 departments, had grown too small. A new building was the answer, although the new structure would technically be smaller than the previous structure. The courthouse, when constructed had 6640000 cubic feet (188,023.9 m³) where the old building had 7,883,500. However, the working area in the new USPO/Courthouse was 485000 square feet (45,058 m²) as against 240,000 in the old - more than double the working space in a smaller building. Part of the explanation is to be found in the fact that the new building was nine stories, where the old had only five, although the height of the old was virtually the same. The cost of the new courthouse was approximately $3,170,000.
Designed by Treasury Department architects in Washington, Supervising Architect Louis A. Simon
, the new building was constructed by Great Lakes Construction Company of Chicago, as the general contractor. Calvin H. Cool, Treasury Department Construction Engineer, was in charge in Cincinnati for the two years of building, with Joseph Areokelan and O.V. Dukes as assistants. Work began November 30, 1936, with the start of demolition.
The block-long south facade has seventeen fenestration bays as defined by vertical recessed window and spandrel panel openings. Stylized pavilions at the southeast and southwest corners contain two story glass and aluminum framed entrances. The vertical thrust of the recessed window openings is interrupted by a Greek key belt course at the fourth floor level and terminated by a carved frieze and projecting cornice at the top of the facade. The view of this facade has been compromised by the installation of the city bus system pick-up/drop-off area. This block-long facility, constructed in the late 1970's, consists of a series of concrete, aluminum frame and tinted-glass kiosks of a futuristic appearance. Their location and design seriously detracts from the overall character of the building.
The half-block east and west elevations, identical to each other, have eight fenestration bays and pairs of one story entry doors located toward the center of each elevation. The Greek key belt course and carved frieze and cornice continue from the front facade.
The north elevation has a pair of identical three bay limestone facades on the ends of the east and west wings while the central section of the north elevation is the buff-colored brick light court. The light court rises from the roof of the first floor postal service loading dock up to the roof of the nine story u-shaped portion.
Typically, the plan of the building is composed of a long corridor running east-west the length of the building. At the southeast and southwest corners of the building, the corridors intersect with the elevator lobbies and above the first floor, turn north to service the east and west wings of floors two through nine. The corridors of the upper floors are generally double-loaded, have tile floors, marble and plaster walls and suspended acoustical tile ceilings. The elevator lobbies have the same finishes and feature the original elevator doors and cabs.
On the interior, significant spaces are found on the first floor in the entry/elevator lobbies at the southeast and southwest corners of the building and their connecting east-west corridor, formerly the postal service lobby. These two story lobbies and the connecting corridor have tile floors, marble walls and plaster ceilings. Also, historic courtrooms exist on the sixth and eighth floors. Although these two story rooms have had carpeting and acoustical ceiling tiles installed, the original wood paneling and details, as well as their overall spatial volume, remains intact.
Courthouse
A courthouse is a building that is home to a local court of law and often the regional county government as well, although this is not the case in some larger cities. The term is common in North America. In most other English speaking countries, buildings which house courts of law are simply...
and federal building of the United States government located in Cincinnati, Ohio
Cincinnati, Ohio
Cincinnati is a city in the U.S. state of Ohio. Cincinnati is the county seat of Hamilton County. Settled in 1788, the city is located to north of the Ohio River at the Ohio-Kentucky border, near Indiana. The population within city limits is 296,943 according to the 2010 census, making it Ohio's...
, and housing the headquarters of the United States District Court for the Southern District of Ohio
United States District Court for the Southern District of Ohio
The United States District Court for the Southern District of Ohio is one of two United States district courts in Ohio and includes forty-eight of the state's eighty-eight counties. Appeals from the court are taken to the United States Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit at Cincinnati The...
and the United States Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit
United States Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit
The United States Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit is a federal court with appellate jurisdiction over the district courts in the following districts:* Eastern District of Kentucky* Western District of Kentucky...
. Completed in 1938, it was renamed for Supreme Court
Supreme Court of the United States
The Supreme Court of the United States is the highest court in the United States. It has ultimate appellate jurisdiction over all state and federal courts, and original jurisdiction over a small range of cases...
Justice Potter Stewart
Potter Stewart
Potter Stewart was an Associate Justice of the United States Supreme Court. During his tenure, he made, among other areas, major contributions to criminal justice reform, civil rights, access to the courts, and Fourth Amendment jurisprudence.-Education:Stewart was born in Jackson, Michigan,...
in 1994.
History
The building was designed and constructed in response to the demand for suitable and adequate quarters for the growing services of the Federal Government in Cincinnati. The previous Federal building on the site, completed in 1885, had grown too small. Construction was begun on November 30, 1936, and when dedicated in January of 1939, the building housed 51 agencies of the Federal Government.The existing courthouse was at the time of its construction, Cincinnati's third Federal Building. The site for the first - the southwest corner of Fourth and Vine Streets - was bought in 1851 in response to a general demand in the city that scattered Federal offices be assembled. Construction of that first building took seven years and cost $339,183. Then, after 27 years of use, the site and structure were sold in 1879 for $100,000 to make way for the Merchants' Exchange.
Even before the Government became responsive to the growing city's demand for a larger building and began to take an interest in Fifth Street as a site, the section now embraced by Fountain Square and Government Square had assumed historic importance. Three Presidents - James Monroe
James Monroe
James Monroe was the fifth President of the United States . Monroe was the last president who was a Founding Father of the United States, and the last president from the Virginia dynasty and the Republican Generation...
, Andrew Jackson
Andrew Jackson
Andrew Jackson was the seventh President of the United States . Based in frontier Tennessee, Jackson was a politician and army general who defeated the Creek Indians at the Battle of Horseshoe Bend , and the British at the Battle of New Orleans...
and John Quincy Adams
John Quincy Adams
John Quincy Adams was the sixth President of the United States . He served as an American diplomat, Senator, and Congressional representative. He was a member of the Federalist, Democratic-Republican, National Republican, and later Anti-Masonic and Whig parties. Adams was the son of former...
- had visited it. Abraham Lincoln
Abraham Lincoln
Abraham Lincoln was the 16th President of the United States, serving from March 1861 until his assassination in April 1865. He successfully led his country through a great constitutional, military and moral crisis – the American Civil War – preserving the Union, while ending slavery, and...
had spoken there. The fountain and esplanade were installed in the early 1870's, becoming leading attractions of the city. It seemed a good place for a Federal Building, then as now. However, business men in the "Bottoms" complained when the move to Fifth Street was proposed. They contended Fifth Street was too far from the business center of the city.
The site for the United States Custom House and Post Office
United States Custom House and Post Office (Cincinnati, Ohio, 1885)
The United States Custom House and Post Office in Cincinnati, Ohio, served as the main federal presence in that city from its construction, completed in 1885, until its demolition in 1936, to make way for a successor building. It was the location of the United States Custom House, and the United...
was acquired by condemnation
Eminent domain
Eminent domain , compulsory purchase , resumption/compulsory acquisition , or expropriation is an action of the state to seize a citizen's private property, expropriate property, or seize a citizen's rights in property with due monetary compensation, but without the owner's consent...
and cost the Government $708,026. The act authorizing construction of a new building was passed by Congress, March 18, 1872, and signed by President Ulysses S. Grant
Ulysses S. Grant
Ulysses S. Grant was the 18th President of the United States as well as military commander during the Civil War and post-war Reconstruction periods. Under Grant's command, the Union Army defeated the Confederate military and ended the Confederate States of America...
immediately, but it was not until April, 1874, that the last of the business houses on the land had been torn down. Excavation for foundations, done entirely by hand labor, required another year. In all, it took 11 years to complete construction. Its cost was $5,088,328.
Nearly half a century went by, and then again, in the 1930's, the demand arose for suitable and adequate quarters for the growing services of the Federal Government in Cincinnati. The old building, completed in 1885 to house 27 departments, had grown too small. A new building was the answer, although the new structure would technically be smaller than the previous structure. The courthouse, when constructed had 6640000 cubic feet (188,023.9 m³) where the old building had 7,883,500. However, the working area in the new USPO/Courthouse was 485000 square feet (45,058 m²) as against 240,000 in the old - more than double the working space in a smaller building. Part of the explanation is to be found in the fact that the new building was nine stories, where the old had only five, although the height of the old was virtually the same. The cost of the new courthouse was approximately $3,170,000.
Designed by Treasury Department architects in Washington, Supervising Architect Louis A. Simon
Louis A. Simon
Louis A. Simon was an American architect.Simon was educated at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Following a tour of Europe, he opened an architectural office in Baltimore, Maryland in 1894....
, the new building was constructed by Great Lakes Construction Company of Chicago, as the general contractor. Calvin H. Cool, Treasury Department Construction Engineer, was in charge in Cincinnati for the two years of building, with Joseph Areokelan and O.V. Dukes as assistants. Work began November 30, 1936, with the start of demolition.
Architecture
The building is located one block east of Fountain Square in downtown Cincinnati and is bounded on the half-city block by Walnut, East Fifth and Main Streets. These agencies were accommodated in a nine story extended u-shaped building with its symmetrical long facade facing south onto East Fifth Street. The structural system is steel frame, the floors and roof are reinforced concrete and the exterior walls are clad in limestone set atop a dark granite base. The style is predominately Art Moderne.The block-long south facade has seventeen fenestration bays as defined by vertical recessed window and spandrel panel openings. Stylized pavilions at the southeast and southwest corners contain two story glass and aluminum framed entrances. The vertical thrust of the recessed window openings is interrupted by a Greek key belt course at the fourth floor level and terminated by a carved frieze and projecting cornice at the top of the facade. The view of this facade has been compromised by the installation of the city bus system pick-up/drop-off area. This block-long facility, constructed in the late 1970's, consists of a series of concrete, aluminum frame and tinted-glass kiosks of a futuristic appearance. Their location and design seriously detracts from the overall character of the building.
The half-block east and west elevations, identical to each other, have eight fenestration bays and pairs of one story entry doors located toward the center of each elevation. The Greek key belt course and carved frieze and cornice continue from the front facade.
The north elevation has a pair of identical three bay limestone facades on the ends of the east and west wings while the central section of the north elevation is the buff-colored brick light court. The light court rises from the roof of the first floor postal service loading dock up to the roof of the nine story u-shaped portion.
Typically, the plan of the building is composed of a long corridor running east-west the length of the building. At the southeast and southwest corners of the building, the corridors intersect with the elevator lobbies and above the first floor, turn north to service the east and west wings of floors two through nine. The corridors of the upper floors are generally double-loaded, have tile floors, marble and plaster walls and suspended acoustical tile ceilings. The elevator lobbies have the same finishes and feature the original elevator doors and cabs.
On the interior, significant spaces are found on the first floor in the entry/elevator lobbies at the southeast and southwest corners of the building and their connecting east-west corridor, formerly the postal service lobby. These two story lobbies and the connecting corridor have tile floors, marble walls and plaster ceilings. Also, historic courtrooms exist on the sixth and eighth floors. Although these two story rooms have had carpeting and acoustical ceiling tiles installed, the original wood paneling and details, as well as their overall spatial volume, remains intact.