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-