Death of a Dome

Vintage postcards of the old Lorain County Courthouse with its stately, magnificent cupola and dome never fail to impress me.

Courtesy Courthousehistory.com

While the newly restored former Courthouse is still very attractive, much of its beauty and character was lost when the stately dome structure – topped with a statue of Lady Justice – was removed.

In a comment that I left on my post about the former Courthouse last month, I briefly touched on how the dome came to be torn down. The commonly accepted version of the story is that the dome had been too badly damaged in a wind storm and became a hazard, thus necessitating its removal for the safety of the local populace.

But was that really the case? I decided to go back and read the story as it played out in the Lorain Journal in 1942 and 1943, and present the articles here on the blog. After reading them, it was easy to see that there was a coordinated rush to demolish rather than repair (especially in view of the later effort to replace the whole building via a county-wide ballot issue in 1944).

Here’s a report of the initial damage to the Courthouse dome caused by high winds during a terrible storm in which wind speeds were as high as 60 miles per hour. The article appeared in the Lorain Journal on March 9, 1942.

A day later, an article (below) appeared in the Journal in which the County Prosecutor expressed his opinion that the county legally didn't have to repair its buildings at all!

By March 17, 1942 the dome suffered more damage in a storm. Here’s the Journal report from that same day.

In this article from the March 20, 1942 Journal, it sounds like there was plenty of money available to either repair or remove the dome.

Meanwhile, the condition of the ornamental zinc trim at the top of the dome was getting worse. This article from the March 24, 1942 Journal explains.

By early April 1942, the County Commissioners were still waiting for an opinion from the state building inspector as to whether the dome should be repaired or removed. This article appeared in the Journal on April 3, 1942.

Almost a year later, the decision to either remove or repair the dome was not yet resolved. The article below appeared in the Journal on February 20, 1943.

A few days later, the small article in the Journal on February 23, 1943 noted that Judge Webber was threatening a lawsuit if a decision was made to remove the dome.

On Feb 24, the County Commissioners voted 2-1 to remove the courthouse dome. The article below appeared in the Journal that day.

By February 25th, when the article below appeared in the Journal, demolition was already underway. The article describes how the statue of Lady Justice atop the dome was unceremoniously decapitated by a member of the demolition crew. The rest of her body was allowed to fall and crash from its longtime spot atop the dome was well.

Incredibly, while the demolition was in progress, the Common Pleas Judges had not yet made a decision as to whether the dome should be removed. The article below from the March 10, 1943 Journal explains.

The article notes that the demolition was already into its fourth week, and that the contractor bristled at the suggestion that "the delay was caused by workmen running into 'more substantial' construction than expected." It hardly sounds like the structure was ready to collapse as it had been claimed.

A day later, the two Common Pleas Judges Cook and Findley dismissed the lawsuit brought by retired Judge Webber to halt the demolition. Here's how it was covered by the Journal in its March 11, 1943 edition.

As a sad footnote to this whole affair, Judge Webber made one final, poignant plea to save the dome in a letter to the County Commissioners. 

As the news item below from the March 18, 1943 Journal noted, "Declaring that it has taken workmen four weeks to remove one-third of the dome, Webber's letter said that "it must now be apparent to you that you have made and are making a mistake in tearing down the court house dome, constructed of solid brick masonry and reinforced steel.

"Webber cited a letter published in a newspaper in which a Grafton, O. resident reported that he had inspected the dome and that "only a direct hit by a 4-ton block buster" would have destroyed it."

Courtesy Courthousehistory.com

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When Did the Lorain County Courthouse Originally Open?

I was curious as to when the Courthouse actually opened, since I've never seen an official date of dedication. Checking an online newspaper archives website, I found two small newspaper articles that suggest it was October 1881. The first is from the Wellington Enterprise of Oct. 19, 1881 and mentions that the building was "nearly completed."

This second news item (below) appeared in the Cincinnati Enquirer on Tuesday, November 1, 1881. It notes that the October term of the Lorain County Common Pleas Court opened in the new Courthouse on October 31, 1881.