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About The west shore. (Portland, Or.) 1875-1891 | View Entire Issue (Nov. 30, 1889)
WEST SHORE. SEATTLE'S NEW COURT HOUSE. ON tlio firHt page in given an engraving of the new court hoime now under court ruction in Scuttle. When completed, it will preHent a mort impos ing appearance, anil can he seen from a great distance, an itH Imihc will rent on a commanding emi nence nearly .'MX) feet altove the harbor and its lofty tower will project into the air KM) feet, or a total of 4(50 feet above the water. This will Ik) the fluent building of the kind in the northwest, and will outshine any state capitol Washington is likely to have for a num ber of years. A few months ago the county voted to issue bonds to the amount of fjlXl.fKX) for the erection of a long needed structure for the courts and county ollices, and the commissioners immediately selected a site and se cured plans. The site chosen is a high hill a little east of the business part of town, facing west on Sev enth street, lietween Terrace and JetTerson streets. The engraving shows the Seventh street front, facing the business part of the city on the harbor. The only objection to the site is its height and the steepness of the approaches from the business streets, but in these days of cable and electric cars such an objection loses much of its force. On the other hand, the elevation adds much to the commanding apearanee of the struc ture and renders it so much the more an ornament to the city. Plans for the edifice were prepared by Mr. Ritchie, an architect of much experience in the erection of public buildings, and were drawn with an idea to combining U-auty, solidity and fireproof features as economically as possible. He has so far succeeded, that this structure will probably be the lcst and hand somest y,.t ,-r.Tted on the 1'acilic coast for the money it will cost. The building is two stories and a base ment in height, and solidly constructed of stone, brick, iron and cement. The building sets back from Sev enth street a distance of seventy-live f,vt, the lot being termed up to it and flights of steps descending to the street in the center and at the corners. The basement is high and almost entirely alsive ground, the walls Mug constructs! of rough, blue sandstone. The su-jx-rstructure is of brick and iron. The main entrance is situate on Seventh street, in the basement storv, directly under the large portico, which is twelve M from the building proer ami is sixty feet in width. The floor of the nrtico is on a level with the first floor of the building, and it will reached by means of window. It hat huge, block, cut-stone bases, of the height of the basement and the jxtlcstals. Six large Ionic columns are imported by these bUks, which in turn nupjH.rt the low gable front roof, which projects fourteen feet from the main building, forming the por. tico. Directly above this, on the apex of the roof stands a copper statue of " Justice," twelve feet in height. The six columns, each four feet in diameter at the base and thirty-six feet in height, are in pairs, or in coupled columns at each end, the two remaining being spaced an equal distance apart in the center, The floor of the portico, level with the first story floor, has a massive balustrade extending across the front between the columns or pillars. At the center of the north and south ends of the building are porticos sim ilar in appearance to the one in front, twenty-four feet in width by eight feet in depth. Each projects the Bame as the front portico, but has only two columns instead of Bix. Reneath each portico is an entrance to the base ment floor, tho halls uniting in the center in a corri dor 32x54 feet in size, from which masonry pillars ex tend to the roof as supports for the central dome. The ceiling is finished with vaulted arches between the pillars. The main inside stair begins on the floor of tho corridor and runs up to the observatory in the dome. The dome surmounts an octagonal tower, which is thirty-eight feet in width and rises 100 feet above the cornices of the roof. Midway of the tower are huge pillars, one on each corner, between which and the stairway is a large portico, from which a splen did view can be had. Rising above tho main dome is a smaller one, in which is another observatory, the floor of which is 4 30 feet above the harbor. The grandest view offered from any vantage point on 1'ugct sound may be had from this lofty observatory. Taco ma, twenty-six miles to the south, and all the cities and objects of interest within a radius of forty miles, can 1 distinctly seen on clear days. In tho large dome will be placed a hugo clock, with large dials fac ing on each street, tho clock to bo contributed by the citizens of Seattle. Tho dials are ten feet in diameter and will le illuminated when tho clock is put in so that the time can bo seen at a distance of five miles. Tho interior arrangement of the structure is admir able for the purposes for which it is intended. In the rear of the main hall, and projecting thirty feet to the rear of the building, is the jail, containing twelve Bteel cages fronting on a steel corridor. Each cell will ac commodate four prisoners. In the basement are also located the kitchen, boiler room, fuel room, jailor's ullice, a cell for insane prisoners, a jail room for ordi nary prisoners with ten cells, a dark cell, a room for female prisoners, another for minors, four ollices, lava tory, etc. On tho first floor ore the waiting room, to bo used also as a grand jury room, commissioner' ollices, auditor's ollices, recorder's ollice, abstracters' room, record vault, treasurer's offices and vault, as sessor's ollices and vault, county attorney's ollicrf, flicritr's ollices and vault, school superintendent's of-