Maricopa County Courthouse | |
Location | 125 W. Washington St., Phoenix, Arizona |
---|---|
Coordinates | 33°26′51.8″N112°4′32.8″W / 33.447722°N 112.075778°W |
Area | 1.9 acres (0.77 ha) |
Built | April 1928 —June 23, 1929 |
Architect | Edward Neild; Lescher & Mahoney |
Architectural style | Mission Revival, Spanish Colonial Revival, Art Deco |
NRHP reference No. | 88003237 [1] |
Added to NRHP | February 10, 1989 |
The Maricopa County Courthouse and Old Phoenix City Hall, also known as the County-City Administration Building, is a historic structure in downtown Phoenix, Arizona. The structure consists of two buildings in a conjoined layout sharing the same architecture.
The Maricopa County Courthouse and Phoenix City Hall was a joint effort of Maricopa County and the City of Phoenix, a "monumentally scaled" building taking up a full city block downtown. [2] As city and county government matured, officials realized that a building of sufficient size was necessary to house county and city functions in an expanding Phoenix and Maricopa County. Maricopa County's facilities were an imposing two-story brick building in Block 76 of the townsite, completed in 1884; meanwhile, the original 1889 Phoenix city hall, which was designed by James M. Creighton and doubled as territorial capital until 1901, was also becoming too cramped for continued use.
On April 28, 1927, [2] the county board of supervisors passed a resolution stating that the current courthouse and jail were no longer adequate for their needs. Additional space was needed for county departments, and adding to the 1884 structure would result in significant fire hazards. The board of supervisors called an election on May 21, 1927, to issue $750,000 in bonds to construct a new building on the Block 76 site; the citizens of Maricopa County approved the bonds by a margin of 3,489 to 780. On June 15, the board proceeded to begin the process of selecting an architect. When the bonds went to bid on July 18, nine investment firms and banks sought them, with Valley Bank and Trust of Phoenix being the winner.
Meanwhile, Phoenix, whose growth in the 1920s had led to at least eight new high-rise buildings downtown, saw an opportunity in the new county courthouse project to get a city hall. A group of reform-minded citizens led the charge to combine the two projects; in early 1927, Judge Frank O. Smith spoke twice to the city commission on behalf of a group in the Phoenix Chamber of Commerce. [2] Days after his second speech, the board of supervisors sent the city a letter expressing a desire to collaborate on a shared building. With approval from both the board and the mayor and continued pressure from Judge Smith and the chamber of commerce, the ball began to roll. In June, the property was assessed, and after that, the board of supervisors accepted a bid from the city to acquire the western third of the property for Phoenix's city hall. On July 8, the city commission passed an ordinance calling for a special bond election to raise $450,000 to acquire the western third (valued at $150,000) and to build the new city hall. The election, held on August 16, saw Phoenicians vote 460 to 164 in favor of the proposal.
Early on, both sides began scouting architects. The board of supervisors traveled to various eastern and southern states in the summer of 1927 to evaluate the latest in new courthouses. [2] They consulted other boards and commissions, and in September, they began to analyze the seven bids that had been received.
Prominent architects and firms figured among the contenders to build the county courthouse. Three of them were local: V. O. Wallingford of Phoenix, recognized for his architectural activities throughout the state; Fitzhugh & Byron, also of Phoenix; and Lescher & Mahoney, known for constructing schools and other public buildings. Four additional architects put in bids: William N. Bowman of Denver, designer of the Yavapai County Courthouse; Henry T. Phelps of San Antonio, who designed several courthouses in Texas; Trost & Trost of El Paso had designed many buildings in Tucson and the Luhrs Building downtown; and Shreveport architect Edward Neild, whose Caddo Parish Courthouse favorably impressed the supervisors. [2] On September 19, 1927, the board of supervisors voted 2–1 to select Neild, with A. G. Austin voting instead for Bowman's proposal.
However, the decision did not meet well with the city of Phoenix, which had backed Lescher & Mahoney. Board and city officials worked to reach a compromise, and both sides expressed a desire to put their differences behind them. An official contract was signed in October, and in November, Phoenix signed a contract with Lescher & Mahoney to design its portion of the project. The contract called for Neild to be in charge of general exterior appearance, but Lescher & Mahoney added several elements to the exterior of the City Hall area and was largely in control of the design of its interiors. [2] In April 1928, the board called for bids for the general contractor; the winning firm was Los Angeles-based Edwards, Wildey and Dixon, who had just completed the Security Building, with which the board was particularly impressed.
The contract process hit a snag when a contract specifying the highest quality furniture for the sum of $47,000 was contested by Berryhill Office Equipment Company. Berryhill sued in Maricopa County Superior Court, alleging that the county, by not providing specifications or calling for a lowest and best bid, did not follow prescribed bidding practices. The Superior Court ruled in favor of the county, but Berryhill appealed to the Arizona Supreme Court, which sided with Berryhill on June 14, 1929. [2] The county was forced to redo the bidding process.
With the building half completed, the city and county hosted a dedication ceremony conducted by the Arizona Grand Lodge of Masons. Among the dignitaries present were Senator Carl Hayden, the acting Grand Orator, and Col. John Philip Sousa, conducting the Marine Corps Band. [2] At the ceremony, the cornerstone of Arizona granite was laid, and a time capsule, coated in copper and containing documents, emblems and other ephemera, was mortared inside with a silver trowel.
The Berryhill lawsuit and normal construction delays pushed back occupancy from the scheduled date of April 1, 1929, to June 23, when the city and county formally took possession of the building, constructed at a total cost of $1,200,000. [2]
The city and county each had portions of the building serving their own offices, with a jail on the fifth and sixth floors. The building housed the City Justice of the Peace and the Maricopa County Superior Court, making it an important hub of legal activity in the Phoenix area. Among the major county cases tried in the courthouse was the first trial of Ernesto Miranda, which eventually led to the landmark Miranda v. Arizona case of the Supreme Court of the United States in 1966 [2] and, consequently, the ubiquitous "Miranda warning" issued by police. [3] In addition, Winnie Ruth Judd was once jailed inside the courthouse. [4]
With Phoenix and Maricopa County both continuing with explosive growth after World War II, the joint city-county building, which represented a vastly different era in state history, now was as inadequate as the structures it had replaced. As early as 1949, Phoenix officials began to explore the possibility of building a new city hall; the city needed so much space that it desired a building for its exclusive use. [2] With this need growing ever more urgent, voters approved $4.3 million in bonds in April 1957 to build a new city hall. The modernist ten-story Phoenix Municipal Building (now the Calvin C. Goode Building) at 251 West Washington Street, designed by a consortium of Ralph Haver and Associates and Edward L. Varney and Associates, [5] represented not only the increased size and stature of Phoenix but also the rapid evolution in architectural styles. At the same time, many Maricopa County functions moved to new facilities in the $11 million Maricopa County Governmental Complex, completed in 1964 and designed by the firm of Stephens Walsh Emmons Shanks. [2]
The Superior Court still uses the building. In 2012, the Maricopa County Justice Museum opened in a sixth-floor cell block inside the Old Courthouse.
The courthouse was designed by Shreveport architect Edward Neild in conjunction with the influential Phoenix firm of Lescher & Mahoney. At the time, Lescher & Mahoney dominated the design of public buildings in the state; their work included the county courthouses in Graham and Mohave counties, and while the courthouse was under construction the Orpheum Theater and Brophy College Chapel, also designs from Lescher & Mahoney, were under construction. Neild, meanwhile, had built the Shreveport Municipal Building in his hometown in 1924 and also designed several structures at Louisiana Tech University. The Maricopa County Courthouse is Neild's only known work in the state of Arizona. [2]
The Maricopa County Courthouse is designed in an H shape with overall dimensions of 230 feet (70 m) by 130 feet (40 m). The six-story central tower dominates the composition, with seven pronounced vertical bays. Two four-story projecting wings with three bays flank the east and west sides; as a whole, the building presents a "wide and imposing" façade to both Washington Street, which contains the entrance to the county portion, and to Jefferson Street. [2]
The building is made of poured-in-place concrete using a conventional concrete frame. [2] The structure itself sits on a raised foundation story made of evenly coursed terra cotta panels, with unornamented window openings. The exterior is clad in rusticated terra cotta panels of various colors that simulate yellow sandstone and also lend the building an appearance similar to that of masonry. The entry to the courthouse is set within a rounded arch, above which is inscribed "MARICOPA COUNTY COURT HOUSE". The entry is a pair of bronze doors with full glass panels topped with ornamental ironwork. The side wings on the second level have windows framed in cast iron, the one element that gives the courthouse a Southwestern flavor. [2]
The most ornamentation is to be found on the building's upper two stories, used as the jail with a third masonry expression utilizing terra cotta panels. The windows on these levels have honeycomb patterns of tiles framed in cast iron, while the sixth floor has conventional steel frame windows. The bays rise to a segmented arch with radiating elements echoing those in the entryways, creating a Neoclassical, form-based appearance. The hipped, clay tile roof was originally coated in seven different colors of tiles, a detail no longer visible due to soiling. [2]
The Second Avenue façade is the third primary elevation of the building, featuring the main entrance to the city portion. This entrance is also set inside an arch, which is flanked by terra cotta sculptures of the mythological phoenix. The wall adjacent to the entry is entirely made of polished granite, while the bronze doors are multi-paneled. [2]
The interior is "equally as elaborate in detail" as the exterior, with numerous materials. Circulation centers around a longitudinal east-west corridor through the building. Behind the county entrance is a grand entrance foyer utilizing four types of marble; even the restrooms feature gray Alaskan marble wainscoting. [2] Paneling and woodwork in the offices and courtrooms features Philippine mahogany. The interior breaks with the exterior stylistically, relying on Spanish Colonial Revival ornamentation on the first floor.
Several renovations were made prior to the building being listed, all minor reconfigurations of the interior. Some finishes and ceilings were obscured, fire-rated doors were added, and several rooms were divided, but the courtrooms were still predominantly intact in the late 1980s. [2]
Karl Theodore Francis Bitter was an Austrian-born American sculptor best known for his architectural sculpture, memorials and residential work.
The Ventura County Courthouse, known since 1974 as Ventura City Hall, is a historic building in Ventura, California. It is located on a hill at the top of California Street, overlooking the city's downtown district with views of the Santa Barbara Channel and Channel Islands. It was the first building in the City of Ventura to be listed on the National Register of Historic Places and has also received historic designations at the state, county and city levels.
The McLean County Courthouse and Square is located in downtown Bloomington, Illinois. The site is on the National Register of Historic Places and encompasses the old McLean County Courthouse and the courthouse-facing sides of three downtown blocks. All 4 floors of the building are now occupied by the McLean County Museum of History for exhibits, collections storage, and offices. The historic buildings at the other side of the square were destroyed by fire in the 1980s. The Square is bordered by four Bloomington streets: Main Street, Center Street, Jefferson Street and Washington Street. The site was home to three previous courthouses before the current one was completed in 1903. The first courthouse at the site was built in 1831, and the second in 1836. The third was built in 1868, but suffered major damage from fire on June 19, 1900.
The Sioux City Municipal Auditorium, known as the Long Lines Family Recreation Center or Long Lines Auditorium for sponsorship reasons, is a multi-purpose facility in Sioux City, Iowa. The fifth in a line of major indoor venues built in Sioux City, it was designed by Knute E. Westerlind in 1938 and finally completed after many delays in 1950. In the building's original form, it was an arena that seated up to 3,500 people. In 2003, the building was replaced by the Tyson Events Center, built around the northeast corner of the Municipal Auditorium. The building was then converted to its current use as a recreation center while preserving the exterior building. The converted arena was originally named Long Lines Family Recreation Center, though in 2023 the building added the Long Lines Auditorium signing to the southeast entrance and inside the auditorium. The auditorium is referred to as either name.
The Arizona State Fairgrounds is a permanent fairgrounds on McDowell Road, Encanto Village, within the city of Phoenix, Arizona, United States. It is currently used yearly to host the Arizona State Fair and the Maricopa County Fair, as well as for other events.
The Yolo County Courthouse was a courthouse for the Superior Court of California in Yolo County in Woodland, California until 2015. The original building was erected in 1864, and was used for 37 years until condemned in 1911. The edifice, built in the same location in 1917, was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1987, and is also a contributing property in the Downtown Woodland Historic District.
The current Graham County Courthouse is a courthouse located at 800 W. Main St. in Safford, Arizona that is listed on the National Register of Historic Places. It is a two-story red brick building above a concrete foundation that includes a raised basement. The main part of the east-facing building is 83 feet (25 m) by 62 feet (19 m), and there is a one-story 17 feet (5.2 m) by 49 feet (15 m) north wing made of brick, and a small ell in the back.
The Spring Street Courthouse, formerly the United States Court House in Downtown Los Angeles, is a Moderne style building that originally served as both a post office and a courthouse. The building was designed by Gilbert Stanley Underwood and Louis A. Simon, and construction was completed in 1940. It formerly housed federal courts but is now used by Los Angeles Superior Court.
The Tomochichi Federal Building and United States Court House is a court house of the United States District Court for the Southern District of Georgia located in Savannah, Georgia. It was built between 1894 and 1899, and substantially enlarged in 1932. The building was listed in the National Register of Historic Places in 1974 as Federal Building and U.S. Court House, and was renamed in honor of the Creek Indian leader Tomochichi in 2005.
The Harold D. Donohue Federal Building and United States Courthouse, formerly known as the U.S. Post Office and Courthouse, is a courthouse of the United States District Court for the District of Massachusetts located in Worcester, Massachusetts.
The U.S. Custom house is a historic custom house in Portland in Multnomah County, Oregon. It was constructed to house offices of the United States Custom Service. It was built in 1898–1901 and is listed on the U.S. National Register of Historic Places. It is slated to become the second Portland location of Industrious, a coworking space provider, in Spring 2022.
The Fairfield County Courthouse, also known as the Court of Common Pleas, is located at 172 Golden Hill Street in downtown Bridgeport, Connecticut. It is also known as Geographical Area (GA) Courthouse No. 2 at Bridgeport. It is a Richardsonian Romanesque brick building built in 1888. It was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1982. It still functions as a courthouse where all but the most serious criminal cases are heard.
The U.S. Post Office at 522 North Central Avenue at 1st Avenue and West Fillmore Street in Phoenix, Arizona, also known as the Federal Building-U.S. Post Office, is a building of the United States federal government that was built in 1932-1936 and designed by Lescher and Mahoney in the Spanish Colonial Revival style. It was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1983. It is currently part of Arizona State University's Downtown Phoenix Campus, where it houses student organizations, counseling services, administrative offices and the ASU Police Department. A USPS location is situated on the first floor of the old post office.
Lescher & Mahoney was an American architectural firm from Phoenix, Arizona.
The Richard Sheppard Arnold United States Post Office and Courthouse is a courthouse of the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Arkansas in Little Rock, Arkansas. Completed in 1932, in 2003 it was renamed for Court of Appeals judge Richard S. Arnold. It is located at 500 West Capitol Avenue. It was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1999 as Little Rock U.S. Post Office and Courthouse.
The Second Pinal County Courthouse, built in 1891, is an historic three-story redbrick courthouse located at Pinal and 12th streets in Florence, Pinal County, Arizona, United States. Designed by prominent Arizona architect James M. Creighton in the Late Victorian Revival style of architecture, it is Pinal County's second courthouse. It is topped by an ornate clock tower, but due to a lack of funds, the clockworks was never installed. Instead a clock was painted on it with the hands set at 11:44. Replaced in 1961 by another courthouse, it fell into disrepair and it was closed in 2005. In 2007 it was declared to be one of the most endangered historic buildings in Arizona. In January 2011, the county supervisors approved a plan to renovate the building and restore it to its former glory so that it could be used by the supervisors and other county entities. On August 2, 1978, it was added to the National Register of Historic Places.
Kemper Goodwin was a noted architect from Tempe, Arizona. He specialized in educational buildings. Some of his buildings are listed on the National Register of Historic Places in Arizona.
Edward Fairfax Neild Sr., was an American architect originally from Shreveport, Louisiana. He designed the Harry S. Truman Presidential Library and Museum in Independence, Missouri. He was selected for the task by U.S. President Harry Truman.
Edward Leighton Varney Jr. (1914–1998) was an American Modernist architect working in Phoenix, Arizona from 1937 until his retirement in 1985. He designed the Hotel Valley Ho in Scottsdale, and Sun Devil Stadium at Arizona State University. In 1941, he began his career, which would extend to his retirement in 1985. His firm would continue designing buildings into the 1990s.
The Superior Court of California, County of Sonoma, also known as the Sonoma County Superior Court or Sonoma Superior Court, is the California superior court with jurisdiction over Sonoma County.