This downtown park in St. Louis was a gorgeous spot to sketch. The sun was out, flowers were blooming and workers were relaxing on their lunch breaks. Food trucks lines the streets around the park offering plenty of lunch time food options.
The Civil Courts Building is predominant in the center of my sketch. It was built in 1930. It was part of an $87 million bond issue ratified by voters in 1923 to build monumental buildings along the Memorial Plaza. The Plaza and the buildings were part of St. Louis’s City Beautiful plan.
It replaced the Old Courthouse as the city’s court building and its construction prompted the descendants of the founding father Auguste Chouteau
to unsuccessfully sue the city to get the Old Courthouse back since there was a
stipulation that it would always be the city’s courthouse.
The pyramid roof on the top was designed to resemble the Mausoleum of Mausolus which was one of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World. During St. Louis PrideFest
the building has lit its columns up in a rotating rainbow pattern. The tradition of Pride started in 2012, when the building was first lit up. In
2016 the top of the building lit up with 49 purple lights to show
solidarity to the victims in the Orlando Pulse Nightclub shooting.