About this property
The Orleans Parish Criminal Courts Building, formally the Israel M. Augustine Jr. Criminal Justice Center, is a courthouse in the Mid-City neighborhood of New Orleans, Louisiana, United States. It was constructed in 1929 and is known for its unusual combination of neoclassical and Art Deco architecture. It replaced an 1893 brick courthouse at Elk Place built in Romanesque and Gothic styles. The architect was Allison Owen, and it was built by R. P. Farnsworth & Co. The building is overall in a stripped neoclassical style, and is unusual in incorporating a mix of Beaux-Arts and Art Deco portions: the central section features a colonnade of twelve fluted Corinthian columns, while the end pavilions are in a contrasting Egyptian-inspired Art Deco style. The architect intended the contrasting styles as representing the elegance and severity of the law. The building is also unusual in that there are few examples of severe neoclassical architecture from the early 20th century in Louisiana, with the colonnade believed to be the longest of its style in the state. The building also features sculpted decorations by Angela Gregory, including bronzed cast-iron bas reliefs featuring scenes from local history, including French trappers approaching a Native-American chief, armed colonial soldiers standing in front of an ornate gate, and an African soldier loading a cannon; as well as pelicans, the state symbol of Louisiana. The building is three stories, with a footprint 418 feet (127 m) by 70 feet (21 m). It is faced in limestone and has three monumental bronze entrance doors. The interior contains a two-story barrel-vaulted lobby providing access to the courtrooms that occupies nearly the full width of the building, which feature several large Art Deco glass chandeliers. According to the architect, the lobby was meant to recall the salle des pas perdus of the Palais de Justice in Paris. The interior entrance to the center courtroom features a mural by Ellsworth Woodward. Predecessors to the Criminal Court were located in the Presbytere. The Superior Criminal Court was created in 1874, and was located at the Bank of Louisiana Building from then until 1879, when it moved to St. Patrick's Hall. (St. Patrick's Hall was on the site of the present John Minor Wisdom U.S. Court of Appeals Building.) A new Criminal Courts Building and Parish Prison, a grand Romanesque and Gothic brick building, opened at Elk Place in 1893. Shortly after the building was completed, half the City Council members were indicted for bribery and graft in the construction of the building, which turned out to have been poorly constructed with cracks appearing in the building.
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Property data from the National Register of Historic Places, National Park Service (public domain).
Description adapted from Wikipedia under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.
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Questions about this property
When was Criminal Courts Building listed on the National Register?
Criminal Courts Building was listed on the National Register of Historic Places on January 12, 1984.
What type of historic resource is Criminal Courts Building?
Criminal Courts Building is classified as a building in the National Register of Historic Places.
What is the period of significance for Criminal Courts Building?
The period of significance for Criminal Courts Building is recorded as the industrial era, specifically around 1929.
Can I research the history near Criminal Courts Building?
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