County of building: St. Charles County
Loction of building: 100 N. 3rd St., St, Charles
Built: 1900 - 1905
Architect: Jerome Bibb Legg
Contractors: J.W. Thompson and Nicholas Pelligreen
Architectural Style: Neo-Classical
"This 2-story, limestone Neoclassical Revival style courthouse has a raised basement and is divided into 13 vertical bays on the east façade and west elevation (facing the parking lot) and into 7 bays on both the north and south elevations. The corner bays on each elevation project slightly and extend upward with an attic story above the main hipped roof to form short corner towers with pyramidal roofs topped by ball and spear finials. Facing out from each elevation, these corner towers have barrel vault wall dormers with louvered vents instead of windows. The main walls of the building are rusticated coursed limestone, but the tower attic stories, like the cupola/dome, water table, window lintels and cornice/entablature details are all smooth limestone. The shallow hipped roof has a raked cornice with an entablature-like fascia underneath the eaves. It is capped by a large domed cupola that has a square, rusticated stone base with a turned stone balustrade. Above this base is an octagonal, smooth stone base for the round cupola, which has smooth limestone walls and 8 round-arched wood windows separated by engaged Corinthian columns. The columns support the modillioned entablature under the standing seam metal dome, which is capped by an open metal cupola or tempietto that has its own small dome supported by a series of small columns. On each elevation is a central entry bay that forms a gabled 2-story portico; on the east and west elevation this spans the central 3 bays while the north and south elevation porticos are a single bay wide. Each of these porticos has a pedimented gable trimmed with a full entablature with modillions and dentils, and within the tympanum is an embossed stone cartouche. The entablatures beneath these pediments are visually supported by flattened Corinthian pilasters flanking the roundarched windows on the second floor. The second floor windows on the west side are actually stained glass windows that open into the main courtroom. Below, on each elevation, is a 1- story, projecting, flat roofed, balustraded portico supported by Corinthian columns resting on plinth blocks on the elevated porch floor. Each of these has an entablature with a raked cornice supported by modillions with a course of small dentils underneath. Above, each of these has a stone turned balustrade that extends between wide paneled stone newels. On the east and west elevations are 4 columns while on the north and south elevations the shallower and narrower porticos have paired columns on each corner of the portico. The west portico has steps that span the entire width of the portico leading up to the first floor level while the east portico has no steps. Rather it has a rusticated stone arcade on the lower (basement) level. The east façade’s ground-level entry is recessed into the main façade wall and is a transomed and sidelighted, half-light, wood paneled door. Above this portico is a stone, turned balustrade. On the north and south porticos the steps are flanked by side walls. On the first floor, the doors on the east and west are paired half-light, wood paneled doors with sidelights that are spanned by a transom. On the west elevation, north of the portico, is the rusticated stone interior chimney that originally serviced the boiler in the basement. Built between 1900 and 1905, the courthouse was designed by noted St. Louis architect, Jerome Bibb Legg. In January 1901, J. W. Thompson was contracted for the exterior shell, including the foundation, walls, and roof. The stone for the building was quarried on site. The contract for completing" ~ NRHP Nomination Form
"Built: 1903
Style/Design: Neo-Classical
Built between 1900 and 1905, the new St. Charles County Courthouse was designed by noted St. Louis architect, Jerome Bibb
Legg. Construction on this site required a great deal of grading given the slope of the property on the edge of a small bluff and in
January 1901, J. W. Thompson was contracted for the exterior shell, including the foundation, walls, and roof at a cost of $37,
349, with work to be finished within a year. The stone for the building was quarried on site. The cornerstone ceremonies were held
on June 12, 1901 and the contract for completing the rest of the building was given to Nicholas Pelligreen. His business was
headquartered in St. Louis and he finished his work for $57,000. The building has been in continuous use by the county, but in
1994, the courts and their offices moved to the new Courts Administration Building at 300 N. Second Street.
"Major renovations were then undertaken to the courthouse, trying to retain and restore the original building interior whenever
possible. Asbestos and lead paint complicated the renovation, but the original mosaic tiles on the rotunda floor, the granite steps,
wrought iron railings, stained glass windows, some of the wood floors, and the main courtroom on the third floor (with its original
woodwork and pews) were retained and refinished. Experts examined the rotunda interior walls to determine whether or not the
original decorative, hand painted detailing could be restored, but costs prevented that restoration, although the details were
carefully documented, before repainting the walls, in the hope that funding might be available for that project in the future. The
courtroom ceiling was lowered with acoustical tiles, allowing the remnants of that hand painted ceiling to remain unpainted for
future restoration as well. Today, the offices for the county council and county administrator are now housed in the courthouse
and the County Council utilizes the old courtroom as their meeting chamber.
"Jerome Bigg Legg designed several Missouri courthouses: St. Genevieve (1885), St. Francois (1885, replaced 1925), Shelby
(1893), Gasconade (1897-1898), and Mississippi (1901, destroyed by fire in 1997). He also was responsible for major remodeling
at the Missouri State Capitol in 1887. He had been born in Schuyler County, Illinois in 1838 or 1839 and came to St. Louis in 1864
to attend Jones Commercial College. He became a clerk and bookkeeper for George I. Barnett, the most renowned architect in
St. Louis at the time. Barnett encouraged Legg to study architecture and after a year working in the building trades, he was
assigned the responsibility for supervising construction of Thomas Dixon’s 1868-69 Centenary Methodist Church (at Sixteenth and
Pine). According to the Landmarks Association of St. Louis, by 1878, he was responsible for a number of major designs in St.
Louis: the Manual Training School for Washington University, St. Paul’s Church, Mount Calvary Church, Cupples’ paper bag
factory, a building for D. Crawford and Company, the Anzeiger Building, and numerous houses in Illinois and Missouri. In 1884, he
built the Exposition and Music Hall (now the site of the Central Library). Of his many designs in St. Louis, most of his surviving
designs are larger residences. In his later career, he designed the Bofinger Memorial Chapel for the Christ Church Cathedral
(1210 Locust) in St. Louis. His practice extended into twelve states and he maintained four out-of-state branch offices. He also
served as editor of the Building Trades Journal, which featured many of his own designs. Although he is listed in the 1910 census
as retired, the date of his death has not been determined. He also designed the courthouse for Ballard County, Kentucky, the
Lawrence County Bank Building (Lawrence County, Missouri), buildings for the Culver-Stockton College (Henderson Hall in 1903-
04, and Poulton House in 1894-1895), the 1885 Finke Opera House/Rite Theater in California Missouri (NR listed), as well as
several buildings in Cape Girardeau, most notably Carnahan Hall (originally called the Science Building and later the Social
Science Building) in 1902 and the 1906 Academic Hall, both on the campus of Southeast Missouri State University.
"The county had been organized in 1812, but initially the county rented space in various locations, including Peck’s Row (from
Charles and Ruluff Peck), the same space used by Missouri’s first state government when the officials met in St. Charles, 1821-
1825. In 1833, the county purchased a lot with a house at the southwest corner of Main and Madison Streets from William Pettus
for $800. This became the site of the 1846-49, Solomon Jenkins’ Greek Revival courthouse (and jail) design, which featured a
Doric portico and staged cupola with a domed roof. Even at that time, the clerk’s offices were housed in small, one story, fireproof
buildings near the courthouse. The courthouse was extensively damaged by a storm on February 26, 1876, but it had to continue
to be used until the new courthouse could be occupied in 1903.
"The county already had the site for their next courthouse, having purchased it in 1851 for $223.87. The bluff top first became the
site for two small one story, hipped roof buildings built circa 1851 to house the county and circuit clerks’ offices, resulting in the
nickname, Clerks’ Hill. Although Meredith Hunter’s information indicates that these buildings were not built until the 1890s, the
two small buildings (and another small building) were shown on the 1869 Bird’s Eye View of St. Charles and by 1876, the plat
map even identifies the buildings, the south one was the County Clerks’ offices and the north building was the Circuit Clerks’
offices. It does appear from the Sanborn maps, that the County Clerks’ building was enlarged or rebuilt between 1886 and 1893.
The two clerks’ buildings remained in use at least through 1900 when construction was starting on the new courthouse.
"Special elections had been held, but failed to pass the authorization for a new courthouse in 1888 and 1894. In 1897, a petition
was again presented to the court for a new courthouse and in July 1898, the court appointed the architect, Jerome B. Legg to
prepare plans with an appropriation of $25,000 made in August 1898. However, the county’s financial situation made the court
reconsider the feasibility of Legg’s plans, which was estimated at $60,000 to $90,000 to build and the court rescinded the
appropriation and deferred construction. Finally, in December 1900, the court allowed construction to commence using his 1898
plans." ~ St. Charles Historic Survey Phase I, PDF pages 411-421