The United States Supreme Court Building was built between 1932 and 1935. Chief Justice Charles Evans Hughes laid the cornerstone on October 13, 1932, and the Court held its first session in the new building on October 7, 1935, 146 years after the Court was founded.1Supreme Court of the United States. Building History
Why the Court Went So Long Without Its Own Building
From 1790 until 1935, the Supreme Court never had a building of its own. Congress lent it space inside the Capitol, and the justices moved between rooms at least half a dozen times. They even met briefly in a private house after the British burned the Capitol during the War of 1812. From 1819 to 1860 the Court sat in what is now restored as the Old Supreme Court Chamber, then moved upstairs to the Old Senate Chamber and stayed there for the next 75 years.1Supreme Court of the United States. Building History
The arrangement made the judiciary look like a tenant of the legislature rather than a co-equal branch. The justices had no private conference room, and the Capitol quarters were so cramped that many of them worked from home. By the early twentieth century, the mismatch between the Court’s constitutional stature and its physical circumstances was hard to ignore.
How the Project Got Authorized
Chief Justice William Howard Taft, a former president, used his political influence to push for a dedicated courthouse. He lobbied members of Congress for years, arguing that an independent building would make the separation of powers visible to the public. His efforts produced two acts: a 1928 statute created the United States Supreme Court Building Commission, and a 1929 statute authorized the commission to proceed with construction and funding.2U.S. Government Publishing Office. The United States Supreme Court Building
Taft did not live to see the result. He died in 1930, five years before the Court moved in. The political momentum he generated carried the project through the Great Depression, a period when many federal construction plans stalled or shrank.
The Site and the Architect
The Building Commission chose a plot at One First Street NE, directly across from the east front of the Capitol. The location kept the Court physically close to Congress while giving it a separate address and its own grounds.3Architect of the Capitol. Supreme Court Building The land had previously held the Old Capitol Prison, a Union facility that housed captured Confederates, political prisoners, and spies from 1861 to 1867. Federal authorities cleared the aging structures and prepared the ground to support the weight of the marble building that would replace them.
Cass Gilbert, already known for designing the Woolworth Building in New York, drew up the plans. He chose a neoclassical style to match the surrounding federal architecture, centered on a west-facing portico with 16 Corinthian columns. The foundation stretches 385 feet long and 304 feet wide. Gilbert did not live to see the building completed either. He died in 1934 in Brockenhurst, England, at age 74, and his son, Cass Gilbert Jr., oversaw the final stages and kept the original design intact.1Supreme Court of the United States. Building History
Cornerstone to Completion
Hughes laid the cornerstone on October 13, 1932, declaring: “The Republic endures and this is the symbol of its faith.” Construction moved quickly from there. The exterior drew on Vermont marble for the public-facing walls, Georgia marble for the non-public courtyards, and Alabama marble for most interior floors and walls. The courtroom itself was finished in Spanish ivory vein marble, with 24 interior columns carved from golden marble quarried near Siena, Italy.
The building was finished in 1935 for less than the $9,740,000 Congress had appropriated. Planners had expected to need additional funding for furnishings, but the commission managed to furnish the entire building within the original budget, returning roughly $94,000 to the Treasury. Finishing a major federal construction project under budget during the Depression was not common.1Supreme Court of the United States. Building History
What the Justices Thought of It
When the building opened, several of the justices were unimpressed. They found the marble palace too grandiose for a court that had operated in modest Capitol quarters for more than a century. Justice Harlan Fiske Stone reportedly called it “almost bombastically pretentious,” and Justice Louis Brandeis initially refused to move into his new office. Over time the building became inseparable from the Court’s public identity, but the early reaction from inside the bench was cool.
The 2011 Renovation
A building designed in the 1930s eventually needed upgrades for modern safety and operations. In 1998 the Architect of the Capitol launched a national search for a firm to lead a multi-year renovation. The work ran in three phases: non-essential functions moved off-site, a below-grade support facility went up, and the historic building was renovated one quadrant at a time so the Court could keep hearing cases without pausing its calendar. The project was completed under budget in the summer of 2011, which stands as the most significant physical change to the building since it was first occupied in 1935.