Milwaukee County Courthouse
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The Milwaukee County Courthouse is a high-rise municipal building located in downtown Milwaukee, Wisconsin. Completed in 1931, it is the third county courthouse built in the city and is listed on the National Register of Historic Places. The two previous courthouses were located at what is now
Cathedral Square Park Cathedral Square Park is a small urban Milwaukee County Park in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, US, located to the west of the Cathedral of St. John the Evangelist. The park only takes the name of the nearby cathedral, with the Archdiocese of Milwaukee ho ...
on the east side of the Milwaukee River.


Description

Situated on the crown of a hill, the building is 174 feet (54m) tall and has eleven floors. The Neo-Classical Revival style of the building was the result of a nationwide design competition, in which architect Albert Randolph Ross with the New York City firm of McKim, Mead, and White was selected out of 33 entries from across the country. It was constructed using Bedford limestone and features architectural details and sculptural decorations with a Beaux-Arts influence, such as a flat roofline, stone owls and lion heads. Masonry was provided by Andres Stone and Marble Company, owner Edgar Andres whose family also helped construct the Library and a local bank which is now the home for the Milwaukee Historical Society. The NRHP nomination observes, "the most monumental of all Neoclassical courthouses in the state, the Milwaukee County Courthouse is perhaps the apogee of the Neoclassical movement in twentieth century civic architecture in Wisconsin." With While heralded as one of the grandest courthouses in the United States, it was once called a "million dollar rockpile" by famous American architect Frank Lloyd Wright.The Making of Our City
''Shepherd Express,'' December 9, 1999.


Civic space

The Milwaukee County Courthouse is part of a greater civic space that includes not only the immediate area, but also the neighboring Milwaukee Public Museum, Central Library, and a swath of government buildings running east along Wells Street to the
Milwaukee City Hall The Milwaukee City Hall is a skyscraper and town hall located in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, United States. It was finished in 1895, and was Milwaukee's tallest building until completion of the First Wisconsin Center in 1973. The Milwaukee City Hall was ...
. Along the east side of the County Courthouse is a terraced commons area called MacArthur Square. It was dedicated on September 17, 1945, to General
Douglas MacArthur Douglas MacArthur (26 January 18805 April 1964) was an American military leader who served as General of the Army for the United States, as well as a field marshal to the Philippine Army. He had served with distinction in World War I, was C ...
, who attended West Division High School - now Milwaukee High School of the Arts. A parking garage was built underneath in 1967, which cuts in to the side of the hill. At the base of the building is the India-America Friendship Park and a statue in memory of Mahatma Gandhi. North 9th Street continues through as a tunnel between the building and parking structure. The MacArthur Square area has been criticized for its uninspired architecture and for noise pollution from the high capacity ventilation of the parking levels beneath it, which overpowers the water feature that was supposed to drown it out.Milwaukee's MacArthur Square, in Pictures and Sound
Retrieved December 29, 2010.
Just to the north is the Milwaukee County Safety Building and Jail buildings. On the southern side of the courthouse is Clas Park, named for local architect and city planner
Alfred Clas Alfred Clas (1859 - 1942) was an architect in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. He was a partner in the firm Ferry & Clas with George Bowman Ferry and in 1913 Alfred C. Clas partnered with his son Reuben F. Clas and with John S. Shepherd, as junior partners, ...
. The Kilbourn Tunnel, a connecting corridor to and from northbound
I-43 Interstate 43 (I-43) is a Interstate Highway located entirely within the US state of Wisconsin, connecting I-39/ I-90 in Beloit with Milwaukee and I-41, U.S. Highway 41 (US 41) and US 141 in Green Bay. State Trunk Highwa ...
at the Courthouse Annex on the west side of the building to Kilbourn Avenue (named for the founder of the Kilbourntown portion of Milwaukee, Byron Kilbourn), runs underneath the courthouse and surrounding civic area.


Courthouse Annex

The Milwaukee County Courthouse Annex was a five-story 447-space concrete parking facility that also housed limited office space. Built in the 1960s, it extended over the three northbound lanes of Interstate 43 (I-43) just north of the
Marquette Interchange The Marquette Interchange is a major freeway interchange in downtown Milwaukee, Wisconsin, located near Marquette University where Interstate 43 (I-43, North–South Freeway), I-94 (North–South Freeway and East–West Freeway), and I-794 (Lake ...
. On the north façade was a four-story, mural titled "Whale Commuters". It was donated by artist
Robert Wyland Wyland (born July 9, 1956) is an American artist and conservationist best known for his more than 100 ''Whaling Walls'', large outdoor murals featuring images of life-size whales and other sea life to call attention to the plight of whales thro ...
, who is known for painting large outdoor murals of whales called Whaling Walls, and dedicated on September 15, 1997. Following some political controversy between then-
Milwaukee County Milwaukee County is located in the U.S. state of Wisconsin. At the 2020 census, the population was 939,489, down from 947,735 in 2010. It is both the most populous and most densely populated county in Wisconsin, and the 45th most populous coun ...
Executive Scott Walker and the Board of Supervisors, along with an unsuccessful offer by the Wisconsin Film Office to allow an implosion of the structure for any production interested in filming it for a demolition scene,Thar she blows?
''Milwaukee Journal Sentinel,'' December 1, 2004.
the Annex was demolished as part of the interchange reconstruction. The last section came down on May 23, 2006, after a permit was obtained from the Federal Government to proceed in spite of some nesting seagulls and their eggs. Upon learning of the impending destruction of his mural, Wyland threatened legal action, citing the Visual Artists Rights Act which gives artists the right to protect their work. According to the contract he signed these rights were waived and Milwaukee County "reserves the right to remodel or demolish the building and/or remove the mural at any time." Since then, Wyland has offered to paint the Wells Street side of the Milwaukee Public Museum, the building he had originally wanted to do. However, as was the original problem, the museum has refused the offer due to the lack of any connection between Milwaukee and the ocean and therefore whales as well. A small section of the Whaling Wall containing an adult and baby dolphin was removed on May 2, 2006, prior to demolition. The dolphin section and a piece with the "Wyland" signature were installed at the northern portal of the Kilbourn Tunnel at I-43 northbound in February 2007, near the location of the former mural.


See also

* MacArthur sculpture * Gandhi sculpture * The Spirit of Polonia sculpture


References


External links


Milwaukee County Circuit Court

Emporis building listing
{{coord, 43.041602, -87.923677, region:US_type:landmark, display=title McKim, Mead & White buildings Landmarks in Wisconsin Skyscraper office buildings in Milwaukee
Courthouse A courthouse or court house is a building that is home to a local court of law and often the regional county government as well, although this is not the case in some larger cities. The term is common in North America. In most other English-spe ...
County courthouses in Wisconsin Courthouses on the National Register of Historic Places in Wisconsin National Register of Historic Places in Milwaukee Downtown Milwaukee