from (
visit link) :
According to one commentator, January 1, 1912 was a “gala day for Cleveland!” as “overawed” citizens were allowed to enter the building to climb the marble steps, lifting their heads in the rotunda to see the stained glass above. The new Court House not only provided space for the work of the County Clerk, Probate Court, Court of Appeals, and Sheriff, but served as the center of operations for Cuyahoga County government with offices for the Commissioners, Treasurer, Auditor, Recorder and Surveyor, among others.
The Fifth Court House had its genesis when the Cuyahoga County Common Pleas Judges appointed a Building Commission of seven members, including the County Commissioners. The Commission selected Lehman and Schmitt as the building architects, naming Charles F. Schweinfurth as the architect for much of the interior space, including fixtures, bronze pedestals and partitions, draperies, paintings and all office furniture. Work began in 1906, and the cost for the structure was five million dollars, with expenses for the land totaling less than one million dollars. The model for the Court House was the mid-eighteenth century Hotel de Cite of Nancy, France.
The Court House was described by one observer as interesting not only as an “example of technical efficiency in architectural design, but as an expression of high civic ideas and is perhaps the best building of its kind in the United States”. Perhaps it was the magnificent works of art and sculpture that contributed to the building’s renown as a cultural treasure. A series of murals and paintings were specially commissioned to illustrate aspects of the law and its progress. “King John Signing the Magna Charta at Runymede,” by Sir Frank Brangwyn, is an oil on canvass found at the entrance to the Court of Appeals. There are two paintings in the Appeals Court Room: “The Trial of Captain John Smith” and the “Conclave Between Pontiac and Rogers’ Rangers at the Cuyahoga River, November 1760,” both by Charles Yardley Turner. The Probate Court features a mural, entitled “Appeal” by Frederick Wilson, and in the Law Library on the Fourth Floor is Max Bohm’s mural “A New England Town Meeting.” An ornamental glass window, designed by Charles F. Schweinfurth from Cleveland and Frederick Wilson of Briar Cliff Manor, N.Y., adorns the Main Stair Hall. A document contemporaneous with the opening of the Court House described the marble stairway as “one of the most magnificent in the world”, having a double approach to the second floor. Here “Justice,” located above the first landing, is depicted without a blindfold to suggest that Justice should not only see the letter but the spirit of the law as well.
The statues on the exterior of the Court House tell the story of the law’s development and represents the law in all of its “human manifestations.” On the south cornice, from left to right, are images of Stephen Langton (Magna Charta), Simon De Montfort (House of Commons), Edward I (Judicial Reforms), John Hampden (Petition of Rights), John Somers (Declaration of Rights), and Lord Mansfied (Commercial Law). Also on the south side of the Court House are two bronzes on pedestals: Thomas Jefferson (Declaration of Intention) and Alexander Hamilton (The Federal Constitution), both by Karl Bitters. Decorating the north cornice are Moses, signifying the moral law, Justinian, the civil law, Alfred the Great, the common law, and Gregory the IX, the ecclesiastical law. The bronzes on pedestals, facing north, are John Marshall (Interpreter of the Federal Court) and Rufus P. Ranney (the interpreter of the State Court) by Herbert Adams.
Today the Fifth Court House houses only judicial functions (Court of Appeals, Probate Court, Domestic Relations) as other activities of County government are currently centered in the Administration Building at the corner of Lakeside and Ontario that opened in 1957. And in 1931, with the completion of the Criminal Courts Building on East 21st St., the criminal courts, Prosecuting Attorney-Criminal Division, Sheriff’s Office, and Jail were moved to this location. Cleveland’s Warner and Mitchell were the architects for this Art Deco structure that stood until razed in 1997. But the Criminal Courts structure fell into disuse about twenty years earlier with the completion of the Cuyahoga County and City of Cleveland Justice Center in 1977. But as Cuyahoga County has developed, changed, and expanded over the past two hundred years, including the establishment of a new form of governance, the Court House has stood the test of time, serving as a reminder of the American system of justice as it has evolved throughout history. As one of the building’s inscriptions proclaims: “Justice is the end of government. It is the end of Civil Society. It ever has been and ever will be pursued until it be obtained or until liberty be lost in the pursuit.”