UNITED STATES SUPREME COURT BUILDING
The United States Supreme Court Building is in classic style, in harmony with the architecture of the Capitol and adjacent buildings, and is located in the square east of the Capitol, north of the Library of Congress, and facing the United States Senate Chamber.
The building, 385 feet from east to west and 305 feet from north to south, has four open courtyards 64 feet square. The portico is of the Corinthian order, and there is a low pilaster treatment around the building.
Photograph by Commercial Photo Co.
THE UNITED STATES SUPREME COURT BUILDING
THE UNITED STATES SUPREME COURT CHAMBER
FRIEZE BY A. A. WEINMAN, SCULPTOR
General designs were prepared, and then, to unify every part of the design, a model was made which was publicly exhibited in the Rotunda of the Capitol for a number of months.
The Supreme Court Chamber is placed on the main axis of the plan. It is characterized by appropriate simplicity and quiet dignity. It is classical in style, 82 feet by 91 feet square in its extreme dimensions, about 64 feet square inside the columns, and 45 feet high from floor to ceiling.
The second floor contains a law library and rooms for members of the bar and conference rooms.
The third floor contains a law library and reading room. The justices’ rooms are on the first floor, convenient to the court room.
A number of rooms for the use of lawyers are provided in the second story. Two large conference rooms are provided on the main floor, and on this floor also rooms are provided for the Attorney General, the Solicitor General, the clerk of the Supreme Court, and the marshal. Convenient rooms and special telephone booths have been provided for the press.
The appropriation for the building authorized by Congress was $9,740,000.
The building was designed by Cass Gilbert, architect, and the erection was under the charge of the Supreme Court Building Commission, Chief Justice Charles Evans Hughes, chairman. David Lynn, Architect of the Capitol, a member of the commission, was the contracting officer.