DRAFT Pierce County Courthouse History Display

IT

WAS

A

LARGE

TWO-STORY

AFFAIR,

COURTROOM UPSTAIRS, AND USED BETWEEN THE CIRCUIT-RIDING JUDGES’ VISITS AS A SOCIAL HALL.

THE

COUNTY OFFICES WERE

DOWNSTAIRS IN ONE LARGE ROOM. CLERK,

TREASURER

AND

AUDITOR

THE SAT

BEHIND LARGE TABLES TO TRANSACT THEIR BUSINESS OF RECORDING THE MORTGAGES, DEEDS AND LICENSES AND OTHER BUSINESS.

The Tacoma News Tribune, July 7, 1932

Civil Rights Crisis: Arrest of JUSTICE LANDER

Isaac I. Stevens

Edward M. Lander

Governor Isaac Stevens arrested a number of settlers believing them to be Indian sympathizers. When the settlers’ sought release through legal processes, Stevens imposed direct military control of Pierce County and closed the court for one month. Since no law authorized court closure, Chief Justice Edward Lander re-opened the court on May 12, 1856 to hold a hearing determining whether there were lawful grounds to arrest the settlers.

The hearing was interrupted when Governor Stevens ordered a detachment of the territorial militia to enter the courtroom and arrest Justice Lander and his clerk. This confrontation triggered a civil rights crisis involving the governor, legal community, citizens, militia, Congress and ultimately, the President of the United States.

THE FIRST COURTHOUSE In Use from 1852 until 1880 Chief Leschi

In 1856-57 Nisqually Chief Leschi was tried for the murder of Colonel A. Benton Moses during the Indian Wars. His first trial ended in a hung jury. The second trial was in Thurston County and he was found guilty and sentenced to death by hanging.

There were several irregularities in the judicial proceedings.

The key witness for the prosecution, Antonio B. Rabbeson, was also the foreman on the Grand Jury who issued the indictment against Chief Leschi. As a sheriff, there was some question whether Mr. Rabbeson was qualified to be a juror. Justice Lander, who presided over the first trial, had been a commander of a volunteer company that fought Leschi.

One of the prosecutors in the first trial was Leschi’s defense attorney in the second trial.

And when the Washington Territorial Supreme

1852

1853

Located on Martin Street between 6th and 7th street in Steilacoom

Court issued its 7000 word opinion the day after oral argument on Leschi’s appeal, it appeared to have been written before the argument.

Despite these irregularities, on February 19, 1858, Chief Leschi was hanged on a gallows at Fort Steilacoom. About 300 people gathered to witness the execution and Native American drums could be heard in the distance. His executioner later stated, “I felt then I was hanging an innocent man, and I believe it yet.”

On March 2, 2004, the Washington State Senate recognized the injustice of the 1858 trial and execution of Chief Leschi, and honored him posthumously as “a courageous leader” and “a great and noble man.” On December 10, 2004, a special historical court, consisting of seven present and former justices of the Washington State Supreme Court, exonerated Chief Leschi of the charge of murder, because he was a legal combatant in war.

1858

After the County seat was moved, the courthouse was used for the Steilacoom Normal Academy and later a theater.

Photo: Miss Newbery’s Class of 1911.

Pictured are Eva Connick; John, Isabelle, Janet, Mary, and Frank Judson, Glen, David, Nat, and Mamie (Mary Jane) Orr; Flora and Etta Downey; Lena, Kate, and Louise Eisenbeis; Mattie and Eliza Rundquist; Helen Serfling; Maud Dolman; Rose Rupp; June Burr; and teacher Miss Newbery.

1880

Pierce County established through a division of Thurston County by the Territorial Legislature of Oregon. The County seat was located at Steilacoom.

Chief Leschi (1808 - 1858) is hanged at Fort Steilacoom.

Washington Territory Created from Oregon Territory

A CENTURY OF SATURDAY COURT Pierce County courts were operating on Saturday from 1852 until 1951

Harvard graduate Edward M. Lander was appointed Chief Justice of the Washington Territorial Supreme Court

by President Franklin Pierce; Francis A. Chenowith was appointed Judge of the 3rd Judicial District, which included Pierce County.

The County seat moves from Steilacoom to New Tacoma following the November 2, 1880 election.

TACOMA’S GROWTH SPURT

A boarding house in Tacoma in 1890

Rear view of the Pierce County Courthouse looking out to the Puget Sound

During this time Tacoma enjoyed one of its greatest periods of growth. The population jumped from 1096 in 1880 to 36,006 in 1890. As a result, Pierce County needed a larger courthouse to serve the growing public. In 2018, the population of Pierce County was 859,400.

APPOINTING A COURT CRIER Every court of record had the power to appoint a court crier. The court crier’s principal duties are to announce the opening and adjournment of court, announce the admission of persons to the bar, to call the names of jurors, witnesses and parties, that a witness has been sworn, to proclaim silence when so directed, and generally to make such proclamations of a public nature as the judges order Document from 1891 appointing H. Bart Campbell as Dept 3 Court Crier

THE SECOND COURTHOUSE

Before statehood, trials in the Washington territory were heard by territorial judges appointed by the President. Each judge rode circuit to hear trials within a judicial district. District boundaries changed, Pierce County was at various times Judicial District Number 2 and Number 3.

In Use from 1882 until 1893

Located on 9th and “C” Street (now known as Broadway)

On November 2, 1880 voters elect to move the county seat from Steilacoom to the city of New Tacoma, prompted, in part, by a pledge from Theodore Hosmer, Northern Pacific Railroad’s manager of the Tacoma Land Company, to donate four city blocks as a courthouse site, and provide free rent to all County offices for one year pending completion of the new building.

Advertisement of the Tacoma Area in 1883

In June 1882, the County Commissioners met to consider plans for the new courthouse. On June 29, 1882, W.H. Merrill was awarded the construction contract with a bid of $6,850. Joseph Sherwin drew the plans. The plans provided for 46 feet of frontage on C Street and 68 feet in depth, with a completion date of November 1, 1882.

1884

1883

1887

Spine of “District Court, Second Jud. Distr. of W.T. at Tacoma

1888

1889

WELCOME TO THE UNION FEMALE JURORS CHALLENGED

BIRTH OF A CITY City of Tacoma created by the Washington Territorial Legislature’s merger of Tacoma City and New Tacoma, effective January 7, 1884

The first legal challenge to female jurors was brought by a female defendant: Mollie Rosencrantz of Tacoma, who was charged with running a bordello.

A SERIES OF UNFORTUNATE ESCAPES Wm. Martin, tried, convicted and sentenced to hang for murder, frees himself from his irons, locks the guard in his cell and escapes from the city by boat.

His escape was the seventh from the county jail in less than two years. He was never recaptured.

Washington State admitted to the Union (Nov. 11, 1889).

Legislature authorizes three Superior Court Judges for Pierce County.

The conviction was affirmed in a 2-1 decision that turned on whether a woman could be a “householder” as was required to be on a grand jury.

Original Judges Journals: Frank Allyn, Fremont Campbell and John Beverly

VOTING RIGHTS FOR WOMEN

WOMEN LOSE JURY RIGHTS

Washington becomes the third territory to grant women the right to vote. Women began to serve as jurors.

By the third appeal of a grand jury that included women, also stemming from a trial in Pierce County, the men serving on the Territorial Supreme Court had changed and with it the opinion of the Court.

“Since that decision [Rosencrantz] there has been a change in the membership of the court, and a majority of the quorum sitting in this case finds itself unable to agree with the views expressed or the conclusions announced in the first decision.”

Whether the statute says so or not, “when legislatures have prescribed the

qualifications of jurors, the requirement that they should be males has always been implied.” The Court then decided an issue that the parties had not briefed, whether the 1883 suffrage act making women “electors” was valid.

The Washington Territorial Supreme Court ruled that the title of the 1883 Suffrage Act did not adequately describe its content.

Superior Court Judges: Back row, left to right: Frank Hale, Wilford Richmond, John Cochran, Hardyn Soule, Bertil Johnson, Bartlett Rummel Justices of Peace: Far left: Waldo Stone Far right: left to right: Elizabeth Shackleford, Willard Hedlund, County Commissioners, Front and Center: Harry Sprinker, Fritz M. Geiger, Emmett R. Burks Superior Court Judges 1955

THE THIRD COURTHOUSE

Pierce County employees in the Auditor’s office (March 1898);

In Use from 1893 until 1959

Located on the corner of South 11th and G Street in Tacoma

On June 21, 1893, the third Pierce County courthouse opened its doors on the corner of South 11th and G Street in Tacoma. Henry Hobson Richardson, one of America’s foremost architects at the time, designed the Romanesque style structure.

The courthouse had hidden rooms and on the fifth floor, room 506 was referred to as “the hanging room.” Two men were hanged in this room after being convicted of murder; a few years later the law required all executions to be performed in Walla Walla instead of at local facilities throughout the state. A closed stairway connected the jail in the basement with the criminal courtroom two floors above. It was in

1907

1910

CLOCKTOWER INSTALLED AT COURTHOUSE Four-dial clock installed in the tower of the courthouse. The clock could be seen throughout the city.

1914

1933

1917

ANNEX ADDITION

BUDGET CUTS

County to build annex in the alley between the courthouse and the armory. “Most of the work will be done by county prisoners.”

Elevator operator Ashcroft temporarily lost his job due to budget cuts. Walking up and down five flights of stairs quickly became too onerous a task, and his position was restored.

Tacoma Times, Friday, January 30, 1914.

ANNUAL COUNTY COSTS

There was a grand staircase in the tower with roomy landings and plenty of natural light thrown in through large windows. There were also two elevators. The law library was the 4th largest in the State. The first floor was occupied by county offices including the auditor, probate judge, superintendent of schools, surveyor, assessor, treasurer and county commissioners.

The second floor contained four court rooms, each with an attached judge’s room, retiring room and jury room. The top floor contained exhibit rooms for the Ferry Museum until 1911.

1949

1950

CAMP LEWIS

Largest condemnation case in the history of the United States creates army post at Camp Lewis

1952

HOLD THE PRESSES Superior Court Judge W.A. Richmond allows the press to take a photograph in the courtroom while holding court.

It was not until 1976 that Washington adopted rules governing the use of cameras during court proceedings.

SHARED SPACES To save costs while awaiting a vote of the public to build a new county-city building, County Commissioner Paul Newman and Superior Court Judge Hardyn Soule used the same office.

CAMP LEWIS

Costs $346,715 to run the Court House and county offices for one year; in 2018 it cost $1.3 Billion to run the County.

Courthouse Builders: Including many of the founders of Local No. 470, Carpenters and Joiners.

this way prisoners could be transported to the courtroom without escaping or being taken by a mob.

EARTHQUAKE Earthquake caused extensive damage to the courthouse including the loss of the clocktower. This set in motion a heated public conversation about preserving the courthouse or building a new one.

SWITCHBOARD OPERATORS

Under Construction Debate over where the building would be located and which agencies would use the space led to several project delays. The original plans included the courthouse, city hall, Tacoma Police Department and the Pierce County Health Department. The County-City Building’s Architect was A. Gordon Lumm, and the contractor was McDonald Building Company.

Commanding General Louis W. Truman, 4th Infantry Division, Fort Lewis, Washington, speaks at dedication of County-City Building.

THE FOURTH COURTHOUSE In Use from 1959 until Present Located at 930 Tacoma Avenue South in Tacoma

“A symbol of the future” was what Governor Albert D. Rosellini called the County-City Building at the dedication ceremony on April 10, 1959.

The new courthouse was christened with a case that symbolized Pierce County’s growth and development. The first trial held in the County-City building was the condemnation case over the land on which Interstate 5 would run.

When the County-City Building first opened there were three units: the judicial wing for county and city courts; the administrative tower for county and city offices; and, the law-enforcement wing for the Pierce County Sheriff and Tacoma Police Department. Pierce County Superior Court, with 6 judicial departments, occupied the second floor wing.

As Pierce County’s population grew, so did the demands for space in the County-City Building. Some offices moved out while others expanded. The second floor judicial wing was expanded to provide additional Superior Court courtrooms and office space was converted to courtrooms in the administrative tower.

1962

1966

In celebration of June Dairy Month, Judge William F. LeVeque welcomes Dairy Princess Donna Starkel and her prize Holstein, Carolee, to the County-City building.

Carolee greeted the public from her pen outside the courtrooms on the second floor lobby, while Princess Donna and her royal court served ice cream cones to visitors.

Memorial services are held in the presiding courtroom in honor of the members of the Bench and Bar who have passed away the previous year, with the judges sitting en banc.

1972

1974

1976

Presiding over the jury trial was Judge Hardyn B. Soule. Seated below the Judge from left to right are Patricia S. Martin, court reporter, Joe Hermsen, bailiff, and Henri P. Augue, clerk.

1980

2010

Adoption of a rule providing for media cameras in the courtroom during court proceedings.

Employee of the Pierce County Data Center was pictured surveying a monitor with keyboard at the data processing office located in the County-City Building

Pierce County adopts Home Rule Charter.

Creation of the Department of Assigned Counsel to provide representation for indigent criminal defendants. Prior to the establishment of DAC, lawyers were appointed by the Court.

Population of Pierce County in 2010, 795,225, making it the second most populous county in the state