The Old Courthouse, a landmark in downtown St. Louis, will reopen on May 3 after undergoing two years of renovations.
Officials with Gateway Arch National Park and the nonprofit Gateway Arch Park Foundation announced the reopening date last week, reported the St. Louis Post-Dispatch. The courthouse is part of the national park.
The $27.5 million renovation includes ceilings and floors; a state-of-the-art fire suppression system; upgraded heating, ventilation and air conditioning; and other restoration and improvements. An elevator has been added for the first time, and ramps will also make the building more accessible.
The Old Courthouse was built in 1828, and has been renovated several times. It is known most notoriously as the site of the Dred Scott case. The case involved a slave, Scott, who was suing for his freedom; the U.S. Supreme Court eventually decided he had no right to sue because slaves were not given the protections of the U.S. Constitution.
That decision is often cited as the worst in Supreme Court history. […]
The courthouse will open with four new exhibits. One will explore the history and lives of Dred and Harriet Scott, his wife. Others will depict Black life in St. Louis, the legacy of civil rights and the courthouse’s architecture and legal history.
The renovations were the final part of the $380 million CityArchRiver Project, which also rejuvenated the Gateway Arch site, the Mississippi Riverfront and Kiener Plaza.
The courthouse last was used for its intended purpose in 1930. It opened as a museum in the mid-1940s.
The Old Courthouse and Gateway Arch are fewer than 10 blocks east of the Tucker Boulevard alignment of Route 66.
(Image of the Old Courthouse and Gateway Arch in St. Louis by Morgan Burke via Flickr)