Saint Paul City Hall and Ramsey County Courthouse

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 Third Street 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, 38 feet (11.6 m) 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.

Read more about Saint Paul City Hall And Ramsey County Courthouse:  See Also

Famous quotes containing the words saint, city, hall, county and/or courthouse:

    And Satan trembles when he sees
    The weakest saint upon his knees.
    William Cowper (1731–1800)

    Creation destroys as it goes, throws down one tree for the rise of another. But ideal mankind would abolish death, multiply itself million upon million, rear up city upon city, save every parasite alive, until the accumulation of mere existence is swollen to a horror.
    —D.H. (David Herbert)

    For a hundred and fifty years, in the pasture of dead horses,
    roots of pine trees pushed through the pale curves of your ribs,
    yellow blossoms flourished above you in autumn, and in winter
    frost heaved your bones in the ground—old toilers, soil makers:
    O Roger, Mackerel, Riley, Ned, Nellie, Chester, Lady Ghost.
    —Donald Hall (b. 1928)

    Jack: A politician, huh?
    Editor: Oh, county treasurer or something like that.
    Jack: What’s so special about him?
    Editor: They say he’s an honest man.
    Robert Rossen (1908–1966)

    ... research is never completed ... Around the corner lurks another possibility of interview, another book to read, a courthouse to explore, a document to verify.
    Catherine Drinker Bowen (1897–1973)