Trials and Deliberations
[Cook County Criminal Courts Building (1893) Otto H. Matz, architect /Images & Artwork: designslinger]
This very heavy looking, rusticated stone building decorated with Romanesque revival
details was once the home the Cook County Criminal Courts. Renovated in the mid-80s, the building is now known as Courthouse Place with offices and lawyers taking the place of judges, clerks and courtrooms.
[Courthouse Place, 54 W. Hubbard Street, Chicago /Images & Artwork: designslinger]
Designed by architect Otto H. Matz in 1892, the building occupies a site of historical
significance in the history of Chicago and the nation. The building is familiar to a lot of people because of the infamous Leopold and Loeb murder trial which was held here in 1924. The building and its occupants also provided the fodder for two Chicago newspapermen Ben Hecht and Charles MacArthur, who wrote the 1928 Broadway hit, The Front Page. The play was based on the daily shenanigans the authors witnessed during their time as reporters in the Criminal Courts building.
[Romanesque details, Criminal Courts Building /Images & Artwork: designslinger]
Matz was actually a finalist in the design of the original Court Building which was built
on the site in 1873 after the Great Fire of 1871, but he lost the commission to the firm of Armstrong and Egan. Their building was considered to be unusable just 15 years later and when the County finally found the money to tear down the old courthouse in 1892, Matz's design was constructed and served the Cook County criminal courts until 1929.
But our history at the corner of Dearborn and Hubbard Street goes back a little farther.
Prior to 1871 the site was home to the city's North Market Hall. Built in 1854, the Hall was used for a variety of purposes but most notably as the meeting place of Chicago's anti-slavery movement. In October, 1853 Frederick Douglass addressed a crowd of over 600 people on the subject of slavery. And in 1856, a group of northside residents formed the North Chicago Anti-Slavery Committee Extension Club to fight the expansion of slavery into the country's non-slave territories and states and held their meetings here at Dearborn and Hubbard Streets, in the Market Hall.
Posted by designslinger at 8/30/2010 1:40 AM 
Categories: Architecture, History, Preservation
Tags: government buildings Romanesque revival Otto H. Matz
Categories: Architecture, History, Preservation
Tags: government buildings Romanesque revival Otto H. Matz
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