Courthouse Changes Over the Years

The First Court House

Building the 1916 Court House was hampered by many difficulties. There were so many problems that the dedication of the brand new Palm Beach County Court House in April 1917 was almost anti-climatic. From the very first, the construction of the building was surrounded by turmoil. But conflict was not unusual in Palm Beach County, for the county had also been created with great tumultuousness.

The first order of business for Palm Beach County was to locate a place to conduct county business. West Palm Beach was designated the county seat because of its central location. The county's organizers also hoped the town would donate the old school house at the southwest corner of Clematis Street and Poinsettia Avenue (now known as Dixie). The school had been built in 1894 on land donated by Henry M. Flagler. Since the new school house had opened up on the hill the year before, the old building had been standing empty.

In 1907, in an attempt to reassure those who worried about the expenses of separating from Dade County, the Division Committee had promised that the new county would not spend more than $5,000 for a courthouse, vaults, and jail and that it would last for at least ten years. They were nearly correct in their predictions. They did not get the building for free; they paid $8,000 for the old school building and lot on the corner of Clematis Street and Poinsettia Avenue.

In addition, their expectation to stay in the courthouse building for ten years was overly optimistic because by 1913, county government had outgrown its quarters. The county commission hired architect Wilber Burt Talley to design a new courthouse to be built on Poinsettia Avenue between 2nd and 3rd Streets. Wilber Talley, who was based in Lakeland, Florida, had designed the $250,000 Duval County Court House and had been the architect for several other government buildings in Florida.

The 1916 Court House Bidding Controversy

The site for the new courthouse was just two blocks north of the old courthouse on Poinsettia Avenue. Some newspaper articles reveal that the county had purchased the half block of land, others report that the land had been given to the county by the Model Land Company, one of Henry M. Flagler's companies. However the county acquired the property, it would remain very conveniently located in downtown West Palm Beach. On October 9, 1913, Evert P. Maule won the contract to build the new courthouse. He promised to complete the building in eight months for $160,000. An additional $23,800 would be necessary for some elements of the interior such as vaults and safes. Unfortunately, the construction was not going to be a quick and painless process. In fact, it would be more than three years before the county would be able to dedicate its new building.

The first of many problems arose the month after E.P. Maule had won the contract to build the courthouse. The Grand Jury, which convened every year to review official records and the general work of county government, issued a statement declaring it inappropriate to build a courthouse for more than $183,000 without going to the electorate for permission to spend that much money. The presentiment went on to complain about the poor roads in the county and the fact that only $65,000 of tax monies were allocated for roads in the next fiscal year. Since the current fiscal year was already $64,000 in debt for roads, there was not going to be any money for road improvement for the next year.

The issue did not go to the electorate but was presented to the Florida Supreme Court who ruled in June 1914, that the contract with Evert P. Maule was invalid because the county commission had not properly advertised for bids on part of the project. In September, the contract was advertised for bids and once again, Evert P. Maule was the lowest bidder. This time the total was $190,000 and the courthouse was projected to take twelve months to build.

In October, The Tropical Sun, a West Palm Beach newspaper, carried an editorial complaining about the cost of the new courthouse. As had been the case the previous year, poor roads in the county were the number one issue requiring attention. In addition, Stuart, then in Palm Beach County, needed a bridge over the St. Lucie as they were still using a barge towed by a gasoline launch to cross the river. The author of the editorial also pointed out that St. Lucie County had only spent $50,000 for a Court House and the rest of their money on roads.

Many other residents agreed with the Tropical Sun's editorial and by November the county commission agreed to rescind the contract. That same month, the Grand Jury conducted its own investigation. They discovered that a Mr. Franz of the Franz Safe and Lock Company had met with the Board of County Commissioners and told them what they needed in the way of vaults and safes. He also specified the materials to be used. While there was no contract between the county and Franz, TheTropical Sun reported that there was “an agreement that said material would be furnished by the said company and accepted by the board, under the specifications on file in the office of the company.”

In other words the commission had pre-selected the vault and furniture and required all contractors bidding on the courthouse to use the Franz Safe and Lock Company. Since the county had not put this out for bid as required by law, it was considered an illegal act. The Grand Jury reported this activity to the governor and recommended that three of the county commissioners be suspended or forced to resign for neglect of duty and incompetence in office.

For the third time, the courthouse construction project was put out for bid and also for the third time the lowest bidder was Evert P. Maule who submitted a bid of $122,500 for the building. The vault and fixtures were to cost an additional $41,736. Once again, some opposed the courthouse project. This time it was not just roads and bridges that were needed but rather the fact that the southern part of Palm Beach County wanted to split off to form a new county to be known as Everglades. Consequently, the Pompano Board of Trade objected to building the Court House because they did not want to be responsible for paying the tab.

The county commission quickly explained that the departing municipalities would not have to shoulder the burden of building a courthouse for Palm Beach County—their tax dollars would go to the new county which would soon be known as Broward County. The commission also had to hear protests from representatives from Stuart, Lake Worth, Delray, Boynton, and Deerfield who asserted that road building was more important than a new courthouse. They also thought a new courthouse should not cost more than $75,000.

In the meantime, as county government grew, the courthouse on Clematis continued to become ever more crowded. At the commission meeting on February 2, 1915, the commissioners “decided that a new building was an actual necessity for the county and further delay might cause irreparable loss.” They also wanted the new building to be “adequate for years to come.” By February 18, the new contract was signed. According to an undated newspaper clipping, the new Court House was going to be finished by November 1, 1915, and it would be “the finest and best equipped courthouse in the state.”

Construction did not go as quickly as had been predicted. The county tax assessor, James M. Owens, was the first county officer to occupy the new Court House and he did not move in until August 1916—eighteen months after the contract had been signed. He and his deputy, Miss Myrtle Miller, moved out of the old Court House in order to escape the noise of construction going on near the old building. Sidney Maddock had purchased the old Court House and lot for $35,000 and was in the process of erecting a new building close by and the noise had become unbearable.

Most of the new Court House was complete and ready for business but the county commission would not accept the building until every detail was as they desired. They did not like the copper doors and wanted them replaced. There were also leaks around windows and where the brick work needed “repointed.” Despite these delays and problems, the building was considered the “handsomest in the state” by a reporter at The Tropical Sun. The first floor office walls were painted above the chair rail and were paneled with oak below. The offices sported maple floors while the hallways had mosaic tile floors with marble on the lower portion of the walls. The exterior was of fire-proof brick and limestone with granite trim. The very latest Johns-Manville asbestos material covered the 8,250 square foot roof. The final decorations were completed and the old benches stained, varnished, and installed by April 13, 1917.

The dedication of the Court House was planned for April 10, 1917 but may have been postponed until April 16th. Few local newspapers from the first few weeks of April 1917 survive. Clematis Street merchants envisioned dedication day as a grand event with a big parade that would disband at the Court House. Once the dedication speeches were done the participants and audience were going to reconvene at the city park at the foot of Clematis Street where they would be able to enjoy the picnic lunches they had brought with them and sip drinks supplied by the merchants. The organizers hoped the day would mark “a new era of prosperity and progress in the county.” Unfortunately, final descriptions of the dedication ceremony and events were not reported in the newspapers that survive. They may have been a great success but they may also have been tempered with sadness as the United States had declared war against Germany on April 6, 1917.

1927 Annex Constructed for More Space

The boom of the 1920s caused county government to expand to meet the needs of all the newcomers. Consequently, by 1925 the Court House was too small for efficient government. The county commission once again contacted architect Wilber Talley who had designed the 1916 building. He proposed a new annex that would mirror the original building and would be built east of the existing structure. The two buildings would be connected by hallways on each floor. He also suggested completely remodeling the 1916 Court House to give various departments more space. The commissioners wanted to make the county officers happy and they wanted extra space for future growth needs.

The annex was expected to be completed by December 1, 1926 but the building boom had created such a demand for building materials across south Florida that railroad freight yards could not keep up with the massive amount of materials being shipped south. Some supplies sat at northern railheads for months waiting for space on a train.

Ready for occupancy in May 1927, the Court House annex had been under construction for eighteen months. The tax assessor's office was the first to move into its new quarters. The Court House annex was described as a better building than the old Court House. It also sported an elevator—a first for the Court House. In almost every other respect the annex matched the main Court House. Just over a year after it opened, the Court House and its annex served as a hurricane shelter when the massive storm of September 16, 1928 struck Palm Beach County. Photographs show the Court House standing tall among the rubble of some of the surrounding buildings.

1955 Addition Joins the Two Buildings

By the 1950s, county government was too big to reside in one building. To ease the over-crowded conditions at the Court House, the county built an office building on Datura Street. In June 1955, the commission called for bids to redesign, modernize, and air condition the existing space in the Court House and to incorporate the empty space between the buildings into useable rooms. The commissioners wanted enough growth room for twenty years.

Wrap-around Provides Expansion; Features “New Look”

By 1968 the greatly expanded Palm Beach County Court House needed further enlargement and improvement. Several designs were presented to the commissioners from free-standing buildings to wrap-arounds but they could not reach a consensus. So in February 1968, they ordered the formation of a special study committee to be comprised of men nominated from three fields of study: engineering, architecture, and contracting. The following men served on the committee:

Engineers: Robert E. Owen of Brockway Owen & Anderson, Engineers
Jake Boyd, retired county engineer of Palm Beach County
Robert Hutcheon of Hutcheon Engineers, Inc.
Architects: Donald Edge
Howard Chilton
Gerhard Selzer
Contractors: J. Y. Arnold, Jr.
Richard S. Black

The group requested sixty days to study the various expansion plans and to talk with the commissioners and department heads as to their space requirements. Meetings were closed to the public so they could get more done. The enlargement of the Court House was to cost $4.8 million. Related projects, including a new jail, would bring the total for expansion to $7 million.

Judges and other Court House occupants petitioned commissioners to junk any wrap-around—they wanted a free-standing courthouse. Commissioners wanted the cheapest plan. The special study committee was supposed to act as arbitrators between the commission and the various Court House tenants.

By the end of May Jefferson N. Powell and Donald Edge had been appointed architects of the selected wrap-around project. Satellite Court Houses to be built in the northern and southern parts of the county were meant to reduce the main Court House's traffic but they were not seen as necessary as court could not be held in those buildings. Detractors said the wrap-around would not provide enough space to meet long-range needs. County Solicitor Marvin Mounts said it would meet needs for ten years but he thought the county should be looking at supplying fifty years of growing room.

In December 1968, the Miami Herald reported that the existing courthouse had 90,000 square feet and the wrap-around addition would add 135,000 square feet. About 30,000 square feet of the addition would remain unfinished, designated for future expansion. It would also cost half what a new courthouse would.

Nearly a year later opposition to the wrap-around continued. Those who wanted the addition included most of the county commission: Dan Gaynor, E. W. Weaver, and Robert Johnson as well as George Votow, consulting architect, and the architectural firm of Edge & Powell. Those against included commissioners Robert Culpepper and George Warren, thirteen judges, the tax assessor, the tax collector, the Clerk of the Court, the Sheriff, and the State Attorney and Solicitor.

Despite the overwhelming opposition, the wrap-around addition was put up for bids in 1970. The bids were lower than expected for the 148,000 square foot addition and Arnold Construction Co. won the bid at $4,554,000. In June 1971, The Times reported that the square footage would almost be doubled, from 90,000 square feet to 180,000. Approximately 40,000 square feet would be left vacant for future growth. The commissioners expected the space to fulfill the needs of the county for ten years and all work was expected to be completed by April 13, 1972.

Construction and deconstruction was not easy on the Court House occupants who continued to work in the building during the process. Since the outer walls needed to be smooth, workers used air hammers to pummel the walls in order to remove unnecessary features. The interior walls cracked and the noise caused court cases to be postponed. As the wrap-around neared completion, most people interviewed criticized its look and complained about the number of hallways. The wrap-around was finished in the summer of 1972 with a total cost of $5.5 million.

As of January 1974, all governmental departments housed in the Court House needed more room and the last 5,000 square feet of the extra 40,000 square feet of previously unused space was being renovated for courtrooms and support facilities. The bond for the Court House addition and the county jail was not going to be paid for until 1993. Not only had the ten year growth plan been shorter than the twenty-two year bond payoff schedule, but the extra space had been used up less than two years after the wrap-around's completion.

—submitted by the Historical Society of Palm Beach County

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