Cumberland, Maryland

Although many church spires dot the Cumberland landscape, it is the Allegany County Courthouse that dominates this city’s skyline. Historically, courthouses in America have been the most architecturally impressive buildings within a community, the better to convey the authority of a local government, as well as to instill respect and recognition.

Designed in 1893, the Courthouse was the first major commission of Wright Butler who based his design for this public building on the Richardsonian Romanesque architectural style. The massing and detail of the Courthouse are typical of this late 19th-century style, developed from the works of architect Henry Hobson Richardson. Characteristic of this style, the Courthouse combines the use of brick highlighted with stone belt courses and presents a uniform rock-faced exterior finish. The building’s ribbons of windows set deeply into the walls, and large arched entry are also typical Richardsonian features. Less typical is the Courthouse’s tower buttressed with round columns that rises above the three-story building.

Aiken, South Carolina

Constructed in 1881 on a lot originally known as ‘The Courthouse Square,’ the building was of red brick. In 1934, architect Willis Irvin prepared plans for remodeling, at which time the cupola was changed to house the town clock, a weathervane was placed on the pinnacle, and the exterior was stuccoed. Original doors and brass locks are still in use in the main building which was extensively renovated in 1987 when an addition was built.

Honesdale, Pennsylvania

Built in 1893, this Romanesque Revival brick-and-stone building once sported brick and stone cupolas atop the building’s two towers but they were removed because of maintenance issues. Originally there were. These cupolas have long since been removed. Above the main entrance are a large arch and a balcony that runs between the two towers. Years ago local dignitaries used the balcony to make their public speeches. For many years the building was also the home to the Protection Engine No. 3 Fire Company.

Hartford, Connecticut

The mandate for the designers of Hartford’s new City Hall in 1915 was to create a building that essentially resembled the Old State House, from where the government was moving. The round-arched windows and balustrades were recreated in brick and faced with white Bethel granite in a Beaux Arts style. The roof is fashioned from copper and tile; all of the entrances are bronze. The inquisitive-looking stone lions on the south side of the building on Arch Street have been residents of Hartford since 1827. They first home was on the roof of the Phoenix Bank at 803 Main Street. The Phoenix Bank was chartered in July 1814 and was the first non-Congregational Church-owned and -operated bank in the state. They were moved to the sidewalk in front of the bank but were hassled by a city inspector in 1918 who claimed the lions were an impediment to traffic and ordered their removal. The bank offered them to the city with the proviso that they be treated with respect and in 1922 the duo was installed at City Hall.

New York City, New York

The consolidation of the five boroughs into Greater New York in 1898 created the need for an impressive and suitably-sized headquarters for the city government. Between 1907 and 1908 the city sponsored an architectural competition for a large office building to consolidate various agencies. Urged by Mayor McClelland to enter, the fabled firm of McKim, Mead & White won with a proposal for a classically detailed skyscraper. The Municipal Building was the firm’s first skyscraper. The building design used the Roman, Italian Renaissance and Classical styles.

Designed by a partner William Mitchell Kendall, the U-shaped structure was adroitly placed on an irregular site adjacent to the ramps of the Brooklyn Bridge and criss-crossed underground by transit connections. Completed in 1913, the 25-story block is surmounted by a central “wedding-cake” tower of spires, colonnades, and obelisks. The central tower is surmounted by the heroic figure of Adolph Weinman’s “Civic Fame” in copper, 20 feet high, poised on a large copper ball.

Various types of sculpture and relief cover portions of the Municipal Building. The central arch is decorated with sculpture in the Roman manner as was used in the Arch of Constantine. Over the side arches are rectangular allegorical panels. At the left (north), Civic Duty is represented by a woman personifying the City, accompanied by a child holding the seal of the city. On the right of the arch (south), Civic Pride shows the female personification of the city receiving tribute from her citizens.

The Municipal Building underwent a complete restoration of its exterior masonry in 1999, which entailed a the replacement of the badly corroded metal pins which hold the granite cladding in place.

Wilkes Barre, Pennsylvania

When it appeared on the Wilkes Barre streetscape in 1893, City Hall presented a dramatic blend of architectural styles: a redstone Romanesque base; Victorian banded brick and terra cotta upper floors with gargoyles and balconies; and Queen Anne towers and gables at the roofline. William W. Neuer and Benjamin Davey, Jr designed Wilkes-Barre’s first municipal building. The towers and gables are gone and the only High Victorian souvenir remaining from that time is a stained glass window of the city seal over the front door. The honeybees illustrated in the seal are emblematic of the city’s nineteenth-century boast that it was “busy as a beehive.”

Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania

Henry Hobson Richardson, of Brookline, Massachusetts, was the most famous architect of the 19th century. After the city’s Greek Revival courthouse burned in 1882, Richardson won a design competition to create a replacement. Richardson would die, prematurely, in 1886 at the of 47, two years before the Courthouse was finished. On his deathbed he is reported to have said: “If they honor me for the pigmy things I have already done, what will they say when they see Pittsburgh finished.”

It is indeed among America’s most imitated buildings; many architectural historians regard it as the finest public building in the United States. It was no less important to the City of Pittsburgh. When Richardson came to town there were no monumental buildings in downtown Pittsburgh. In fact, there was no real downtown Pittsburgh, only street after street of sprawling industry. Richardson’s courthouse was designed to tower over the city, providing an anchor for a defined streetscape. With a model of great architecture on a grand scale suddenly placed in their midst, Pittsburgh’s titans of industry were eager to emulate its designs for their new commercial palaces that soon lined Grant Street.

Richardson, who had studied in Paris, was inspired by the 11th- and 12th-century castles of France and Spain. His intimidating design for Allegheny Courthouse included great, round-arched door and window openings. Some things have been compromised in its 125 years (the towering Frick Building across the street eliminated its position as centurion of the city) but most of its impact remains as awe-inspiring as the master architect intended it. A self-guided walking tour brochure for the courthouse and jail is available inside.