Douglas County Courthouse

Douglas County Courthouse

The present Douglas County Courthouse is located at 1700 Farnam Street in Downtown Omaha. Built in 1912, it was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1979. Notable events at the Courthouse include two lynchings and the city's first Civil Rights Era sit-in protest. The building itself was almost destroyed five years after it was opened by mob violence.

The 1912 building was designed in the French Renaissance Revival style by local architect John Latenser, Sr.. Decorative stonework covers the building's exterior, and the building serves as a prominent landmark in downtown.^[1]

[edit] Original courthouse

Three years after the city was founded in 1854, on March 18, 1857 the City of Omaha built a jail and courthouse in an area known as Washington Square. It bounded by 15th, 16th, Douglas and Farnam streets. The original courthouse in Douglas County, with a council room and mayor’s court room, several offices and jail cells, was opened January 4, 1858.^[2]

[edit] Second courthouse

The original building was found to be too small as early as 1869. The current site, a block between 17th, 18th, Farnam and Harney Streets, became available in 1878, and in 1879, a jail was built on the southwest corner of this lot. A completely new courthouse was opened on May 28, 1885.

A 112 x 130 foot-wide building, outer walls were covered with sandstone and the inner walls were brick. The dome was iron and sheet metal that was sanded and painted to resemble stone, and was crowned by a 10-foot statue of Justice. Marble tiled hallways and elaborate wrought iron staircases went throughout the building.^[3]

The lynching of Joe Coe occurred outside of the Courthouse in 1891. Ten thousand spectators watched as Coe was dragged from his cell and hung from streetcar cables at the corner of 18th and Harney. In 1913 the Creighton University School of Law in Omaha acquired the bench from the second courthouse. Circular marks on its top surface are still apparent from the instillation of gas lamps in the 1880s.

[edit] Present courthouse

John Latenser, Sr., a locally important architect, was hired to design a replacement building in 1908. It was opened October 1, 1912. Built south of the old courthouse, the new building's is six stories tall along Harney Street and five stories along Farnam. While the exterior walls are covered with unembellished Bedford stone, the interior halls have mosaic floors and marble wainscotings. Hardwood covers the interior of most offices, and vaults preserve county records. There are county offices on the main floor, second and third floors, and courtrooms on the forth floor. The Douglas County Jail is on the fifth floor.^[4]

In 1919 a mob of 20,000 rioters overtook the Courthouse seeking to lynch an African American worker named Willy Brown. After lynching him and the city's mayor, who escaped alive, the Omaha Race Riot of 1919 swarmed towards the city's black quarter attempting to burn it down, but were stopped by soldiers from Fort Omaha.^[5]

In 1948 a group of members from a local civil rights group called the DePorres Club held the city's first sit-in at a restaurant in the building. When the group arrived the owner told them that white customers would stop coming into the restaurant if blacks were served; in response, the 30 members of the group stayed until the owner agreed to allow African American patrons.^[6]

[edit] See also

• History of Omaha

[edit] References

[edit] External links

[edit] Reference links

• History of the Courthouse
• Lynching Story

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