The Frank M. Johnson Jr. Federal Building and United States Courthouse is a United States federal building in

Montgomery, Alabama Montgomery is the capital city of the U.S. state of Alabama and the county seat of Montgomery County. Named for the Irish soldier Richard Montgomery, it stands beside the Alabama River, on the coastal Plain of the Gulf of Mexico. In the 202 ...

, completed in 1933 and primarily used as a courthouse of the United States District Court for the Middle District of Alabama. The building is also known as United States Post Office and Courthouse—Montgomery and listed under that name on the

National Register of Historic Places The National Register of Historic Places (NRHP) is the United States federal government's official list of districts, sites, buildings, structures and objects deemed worthy of preservation for their historical significance or "great artistic ...

. In 1992, it was renamed by the

United States Congress The United States Congress is the legislature of the federal government of the United States. It is bicameral, composed of a lower body, the House of Representatives, and an upper body, the Senate. It meets in the U.S. Capitol in Washing ...

in honor of Frank Minis Johnson, who had served as both a district court judge and a court of appeals judge.S.1467 -- To designate the Federal Building and the United States Courthouse located at 15 Lee Street in Montgomery, Alabama, as the "Frank M. Johnson Jr. Federal Building and United States Courthouse"
It was designated a

National Historic Landmark A National Historic Landmark (NHL) is a building, district, object, site, or structure that is officially recognized by the United States government for its outstanding historical significance. Only some 2,500 (~3%) of over 90,000 places listed ...

in 2015.

Building history

By 1929, there was an acute need for a new federal building in Montgomery. Federal offices were crowded, outdated, and scattered throughout the city. The

authorized funding for a new building in 1930, and the government purchased a lot containing the Court Street Methodist Church for $114,000 in 1931. The congregation relocated and the church was razed. The government, which had been authorized under a 1930 amendment to the

Public Buildings Act The Public Buildings Act of 1926, also known as the Elliot–Fernald Act, was a statute which governed the construction of federal buildings throughout the United States, and authorized funding for this construction. Its primary sponsor in the Ho ...

of 1926 to hire private architects, selected Frank Lockwood of Montgomery to design the building. The Office of the Supervising Architect under

James A. Wetmore James Alfonso Wetmore (November 1863 – March 14, 1940) was an American lawyer and administrator, best known as the Acting Supervising Architect of the U.S. Office of the Supervising Architect of the Treasury Department from 1915 through 1933 ...

oversaw the project. Lockwood had completed a number of important projects in Montgomery, including the wings of the

Alabama State Capitol The Alabama State Capitol, listed on the National Register of Historic Places as the First Confederate Capitol, is the state capitol building for Alabama. Located on Capitol Hill, originally Goat Hill, in Montgomery, it was declared a National H ...

and the Carnegie Library. The cornerstone was laid in a Masonic service on July 16, 1932, and the building, which included a post office, was completed and occupied the following year. In 1978, the post office moved to a new downtown facility. Over time, the remaining tenants required additional space and an annex designed by Barganier Davis Sims Architects Associated, a Montgomery firm, was completed in 2002. In 1992, the building was renamed the Frank M. Johnson Jr. Federal Building and United States Courthouse to honor one of the country's most distinguished judges who presided there for nearly three decades. President Dwight Eisenhower had appointed Frank M. Johnson Jr. to the position of district judge for the middle district of Alabama in 1955. Johnson ruled on a series of cases challenging Alabama's systematic racial discrimination. In 1956, Johnson ruled that segregated seating on Montgomery's buses was unlawful, justifying the

Montgomery bus boycott The Montgomery bus boycott was a political and social protest campaign against the policy of racial segregation on the public transit system of Montgomery, Alabama. It was a foundational event in the civil rights movement in the United States ...

. He also ruled in 1965 that it was legal for the Civil Rights march from Selma to Montgomery to proceed. In 1979, President

Jimmy Carter James Earl Carter Jr. (born October 1, 1924) is an American politician who served as the 39th president of the United States from 1977 to 1981. A member of the Democratic Party, he previously served as the 76th governor of Georgia from 1 ...

elevated him to the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals, on which he served until he was reassigned to the Eleventh Circuit Court of Appeals in 1981. Johnson assumed

senior status Senior status is a form of semi- retirement for United States federal judges. To qualify, a judge in the federal court system must be at least 65 years old, and the sum of the judge's age and years of service as a federal judge must be at leas ...

in 1991 and remained active until his death. In 1997, the Annex received the Citation Award from the

American Institute of Architects The American Institute of Architects (AIA) is a professional organization for architects in the United States. Headquartered in Washington, D.C., the AIA offers education, government advocacy, community redevelopment, and public outreach to su ...

Committee on Architecture for Justice. The building was listed in the

in 1998, and in 2015 it was additionally designated a

Architecture

The building is located on a parcel of land bounded by Lee, Court, Clayton, Catoma, and Church streets, and the historic Montgomery Bus Station, where a mob attacked the Freedom Riders in 1961. The rising terrain and trapezoidal block give the building a dramatic and commanding site that is intensified by dignified and impressive architecture. Architect Frank Lockwood Sr., designed the building in the

Renaissance Revival Renaissance Revival architecture (sometimes referred to as "Neo-Renaissance") is a group of 19th century architectural revival styles which were neither Greek Revival nor Gothic Revival but which instead drew inspiration from a wide range o ...

style of architecture. The building's design conveys the dignity and stability of the federal government, which was particularly important during the Great Depression. It does not, however, contain excessive or exuberant ornamentation considered inappropriate for a somber period in American history. The quality materials and craftsmanship inspired confidence as citizens witnessed this major construction effort. Characteristics of the style include the rusticated first story, arched openings, tile roof, and columns and pilasters. The building is five stories tall and has an essentially U-shaped footprint with an interior lightwell. The first level is clad in large rusticated limestone blocks atop a granite base, and the upper stories are covered in smooth limestone ashlar. The rear elevation is clad in limestone, with the interior of the lightwell clad in buff-colored brick. The symmetrical principal facade faces Church Street. It is dominated by two pediments at each end that are supported by four monumental engaged Doric columns. A frieze with incised

triglyph Triglyph is an architectural term for the vertically channeled tablets of the Doric frieze in classical architecture, so called because of the angular channels in them. The rectangular recessed spaces between the triglyphs on a Doric frieze are ...

s and a

dentil A dentil (from Lat. ''dens'', a tooth) is a small block used as a repeating ornament in the bedmould of a cornice. Dentils are found in ancient Greek and Roman architecture, and also in later styles such as Neoclassical, Federal, Georgian R ...

(rectangular block) course is found beneath the pediments. The Lee Street elevation features a colonnade of eight

Doric columns The Doric order was one of the three orders of ancient Greek and later Roman architecture; the other two canonical orders were the Ionic and the Corinthian. The Doric is most easily recognized by the simple circular capitals at the top of col ...

, while the Court Street elevation contains three-story

pilaster In classical architecture, a pilaster is an architectural element used to give the appearance of a supporting column and to articulate an extent of wall, with only an ornamental function. It consists of a flat surface raised from the main wal ...

s. Entrances have bronze doors with pediments decorated with

eagles Eagle is the common name for many large birds of prey of the family Accipitridae. Eagles belong to several groups of genera, some of which are closely related. Most of the 68 species of eagle are from Eurasia and Africa. Outside this area, jus ...

and floral scrolls. Round-arch openings on the first story have articulated

voussoir A voussoir () is a wedge-shaped element, typically a stone, which is used in building an arch or vault. Although each unit in an arch or vault is a voussoir, two units are of distinct functional importance: the keystone and the springer. The ...

s. Remaining windows on the upper stories are rectangular; those on the second story are topped by either carved surrounds or pediments. The shallow

hipped roof A hip roof, hip-roof or hipped roof, is a type of roof where all sides slope downwards to the walls, usually with a fairly gentle slope (although a tented roof by definition is a hipped roof with steeply pitched slopes rising to a peak). Thus, ...

is covered with red terra-cotta tiles. A penthouse originally used as a

weather station A weather station is a facility, either on land or sea, with instruments and equipment for measuring atmospheric conditions to provide information for weather forecasts and to study the weather and climate. The measurements taken include tempera ...

occupies the roof. The interior boasts an elaborate L-shaped public lobby on the first floor. The floor is covered with

travertine Travertine ( ) is a form of terrestrial limestone deposited around mineral springs, especially hot springs. It often has a fibrous or concentric appearance and exists in white, tan, cream-colored, and even rusty varieties. It is formed by a p ...

marble trimmed in green Maryland marble. Walls are clad in Briar Hill, Ohio, sandstone, and ceilings are coffered plaster with gold leaf. Original brass postal service windows and bronze grilles remain. The most significant interior space is the U.S. District Courtroom, where Judge Johnson presided, on the second floor. Limestone arches surround the windows. A stone niche behind the judge's bench is painted with white stars on a blue field. A stenciled wood ceiling, designed in the Italian Renaissance style, tops the room. It was repainted and re-gilded in the 1970s. A fourth-floor appellate courtroom is paneled in black walnut, which was also used in judges' chambers in the original building. Other original interior spaces include elevator lobbies, judges' chambers, and the district

law library A law library is a special library used by law students, lawyers, judges and their law clerks, historians and other scholars of legal history in order to research the law. Law libraries are also used by people who draft or advocate for new la ...

. Terrazzo and marble floors, marble wainscot, bronze elevator doors with

bas-relief Relief is a sculptural method in which the sculpted pieces are bonded to a solid background of the same material. The term '' relief'' is from the Latin verb ''relevo'', to raise. To create a sculpture in relief is to give the impression that th ...

panels, and bronze radiator grilles are found throughout the building. The Annex, which was completed in 2002, has a radial design that is stylistically compatible with the original building. The Annex contains judges' chambers, district courtrooms, and bankruptcy courts. Between 2002 and 2006, the original building was renovated and the interior spaces reconfigured to accommodate the needs of the court.

Significant events

*1933: Construction completed *1956: Judge Johnson strikes down legality of segregated bus seating *1955: Frank M. Johnson Jr. appointed District Judge *1965: Judge Johnson rules the Selma to Montgomery march can proceed *1978: Post Office vacates building *1992: Building renamed to honor Judge Johnson *1997: Annex receives Citation Award from the American Institute of Architects Committee on Architecture for Justice *1998: Building listed in the

*2002: Annex completed *2015: Designated a

Building facts

*Location: 15 Lee Street *Architects: Frank Lockwood Sr.; Barganier Davis Sims Architects Associated *Construction Dates: 1932–1933; 1996–2002 *Architectural Style: Renaissance Revival *Landmark Status: Listed in the

*Primary Materials: Limestone, Granite, and Brick *Prominent Features: District Courtroom, Colonnade

References

External links