Nashville
Location: 401 7th Avenue North / Charlotte Street
Built: 1936 – 1937
Style: Classical Revival
Architect: Joseph Holman and Thomas Marr of Nashville
Contractor: Rock City Construction Company
Description: The building faces east and is a three story limestone and concrete structure. The building is located west of the State Capitol in the center of Nashville. Bronze light standards which emit vertical shafts of light upwards, illuminate the steps leading to the building. On the first floor off the lobby is the impressive Supreme Court room which is patterned after the U. S. Supreme Court in Washington. The building is a square building and is faced with limestone, more specifically a bioclastic grainstone from eastern Tennessee. The surface of the rock on this building has been etched sufficiently by acidic rainwater that the bioclastic grains are quite evident, so that one can see that this is defintely a limestone – it retains the fossiliferous texture that would be lost in metamorphism. The stone is nonetheless marketed as “Tennessee Marble” from quarries around Knoxville, because it polishes to a shiny pinkish-brown. The building contains the Supreme Court and the Court of Appeals which use the same courtroom. There is an eastern division and western division.
See: National Register of Historic Places – Tennessee Supreme Court Building
See: The Supreme Court Building is located in Davidson County.
Old Supreme Court Chamber – Nashville
Location: Capitol Hill / Charlotte Street
Built: 1845 – 1859
Style: Greek Revival
Architect: William Strickland
Contractor: Francis Strickland ( supervisor ) and Harvey Akeroyd ( supervisor from 1857 )
Description: The old Supreme Court Chamber is located at the northeast corner of the first story of the Tennessee State Capitol. The building faces east and is a three story limestone and concrete structure. The construction was completed by local masons and laborers. In 1937 and 1938, the area was divided into offices with masonry walls. In 1988, the former chamber was restored to the way it looked in 1850′s. The Supreme Court occupied the chamber until 1936 when the Supreme Court Building was constructed.
See: Tennessee Supreme Court – eastern division
See: Tennessee Supreme Court – western division
Supreme Court Building – Nashville
Supreme Court Courtroom
Law Library
Old Supreme Court Chamber – State Capitol
Photos taken 2014 and 2018