My hotel in downtown St. Louis was right across the street from the Old Courthouse. (I doubt that’s what it was called when it was used as a courthouse.) It’s part of the Jefferson National Expansion Memorial. A monument to Dred and Harriet Scott stands out front.
The courthouse was open when I walked back to my hotel after the convention, so I went inside. The building is impressive, but there isn’t much to see — a couple rooms with a basic display on the history of St. Louis, two courtrooms, one of which is being renovated, a room on the history of the Dred Scott case. Scott was a slave who had been taken to a free state and then brought back to Missouri. He sued for his freedom and won, but the case was appealed and went to the Supreme Court. Chief Justic Roger B. Taney ruled against Scott, saying that Blacks are personal property, not citizens, and therefore, can’t sue. The decision helped bring about the Civil War. The case began in this courthouse.
This is the room in which the Dred Scott case was tried, although it didn’t look at all like this and this isn’t the original furniture. I’m guessing there wasn’t a red chair on the bench either.
The rotunda.
A model of the Old Courthouse.
The view of the Arch from inside the Old Courthouse.
I stopped for a few more photos with THE Red Chair the next day during a brief pause between violent thunderstorms.
My hotel is the brown brick building just behind and to the right of the courthouse in the photo below.
