THE BALTIMORE COURT HOUSE
THE
BALTIMORE
COURT
85
HOUSE
By Gertrude B. Knipp CHALLENGING immediate attention by its impressive dignity, its classic beauty, the Baltimore Court House has been in vested with additional interest since the great fire of two years ago which ate out the heart of the business section of the city. The building stands at the very edge of the burnt district; the office buildings that were separated by a narrow footway from its west front were burned to the ground, and the skyscrapers facing the south front were left blackened shells. That the Court House was not destroyed was due partly to the heroic efforts of the men who stubbornly fought the advance of the flames, and partly to a fortunate veering about of the wind. The building was designed by the Balti more architects, J. B. Noel Wyatt and Wm. G. Nolting, and occupies an entire block. In general, the plan followed is that of a hollow square, with wings across the center. It is 312 feet long, 191 feet wide, and at its highest point measures 105 feet. It was erected at a total cost of $2,250,000. The Renaissance classic style of architec ture chosen by the designers made possible a building in which beauty of line and impressiveness of form have been harmoni ously combined. Their plan was realized in white marble, and if Giotto's Tower is a poem, a building like this Hall of Justice possesses the qualities of the epic. Of its many strikingly beautiful features the great loggia with its eight huge monoliths, over the main entrance on Calvert Street — the east front of the building — is the first to catch the eye. The other entrances while less imposing, are entirely in harmony. The great doors beneath the loggia are of bronze, and the vestibule into which they open is of rare beauty, with its many arches and vaults springing from piers of Old Con vent Sienna marble. Broad stairways of Tennessee marble and of beautifully wrought
bronze lead to the mezzanine floor and to the two upper stories. The corridors are finished in marble, polished Italian and white marble prevailing, but monotony has been avoided by the treatment of the main vestibules in mellow tinted Numidian and Sienna marbles. The court rooms are fin ished in marble or in hard woods, and the qualities of dignity and appropriateness which characterize the exterior are equally striking traits of the interior. As was fit ting, the skill of both designer and builder was especially lavished on the room set apart for the Supreme Bench, an imposing rotunda-like apartment in which the gleam of warm hued marbles, in columns and panels and alcoves, is taken up and reflected back by the rich dark woods of the furnish ings. All of the city courts, the record offices and other offices connected with the courts, are under the one roof. The bar library is housed in the building, also, in apartments in which quiet richness of finish combines with architectural fitness. When the building was completed and turned over to the city early in January, in 1900, all that was lacking to round out its beauty were mural paintings which should suggest typical events or periods in the his tory of city or .state, or should symbolize the purposes of the structure itself. A beginning was soon made, and three of the representative American mural painters have been engaged on the decorations, so far — Charles Yardley Turner, Edwin H. Blashfield, and John La Farge. As Mr. Turner is a native of Baltimore, though not at present a resident, and as his early art training was received at the Maryland Institute, it was especially appropriate that he be chosen to do the first decorations that were placed in the building. He was afterwards com missioned to do another series, and the two constitute the decoration of the vestibule
