County Courthouse

Story

The Saint Paul City Hall and Ramsey County Courthouse, located at 15 Kellogg Boulevard West in Saint Paul, Ramsey County, in the U.S. state of Minnesota is a twenty-story Art Deco skyscraper built during the Great Depression era of high unemployment and falling prices. For this reason, the $4,000,000 budgeted for the building was underspent, while the quality of materials and craftsmanship were higher than initially envisioned. The exterior consists of smooth Indiana limestone in the Art Deco style known as "American Perpendicular", designed by Thomas Ellerbe & Company of Saint Paul and Holabird & Root of Chicago and inspired by Finnish architect, Eliel Saarinen. The vertical rows of windows are linked by plain, flat, black spandrels. Above the Fourth Street entrance and flanking the Kellogg Boulevard entrance are relief sculptures carved by Lee Lawrie.The interior design in the "Zigzag Moderne" style drew its inspiration from the Exposition Internationale des Arts Décoratifs et Industriels Modernes, which promoted soft ornamentation and sensuous curves. In Memorial Hall the white marble floor contrasts with three-story black marble piers leading to a gold-leaf ceiling. At the end of the hall is the 60-ton, 38ft white onyx Indian God of Peace by Carl Milles (later renamed Vision of Peace). Other features include woodwork fashioned out of twenty-three different species of wood and uses for five different types of imported marble. Murals were painted by John W. Norton while the six bronze elevator doors were made by Albert Stewart.