Old Courthouse

A landmark courthouse connected to slavery, freedom, law, and the moral battles of nineteenth-century St. Louis.

The Old Courthouse witnessed some of St. Louis's most consequential legal history, including freedom suits that exposed the contradictions of a slave state at the gateway to the West.

The Story

The Old Courthouse stands at the center of St. Louis's nineteenth-century civic landscape. Its courtrooms handled ordinary local business as well as cases that reached into the defining national conflicts over slavery and freedom.

Most famously, Dred and Harriet Scott pursued freedom through the St. Louis courts, beginning litigation that ultimately reached the U.S. Supreme Court. The courthouse therefore connects the physical city to one of the country's most consequential legal struggles.

Unlike many locations in Strange St. Louis, the building survives and remains one of downtown's most recognizable historic landmarks.