County Courthouse is 100 years strong

If only buildings could talk. Think of the stories the St. Louis County Courthouse could tell about the past 100 years in Duluth: all those contentious County Board meetings, scandalous legal cases ... even whispered conversations on the long wooden benches outside the courtrooms.

Since the courthouse — while packed with written records of County Board and Duluth City Council meetings, including a bound copy of the Duluth City Charter of 1895 — isn’t likely to start speaking anytime soon, several county employees are working to bring the building’s history to the public.

Everyone is invited for cake and to tour the building between 11 a.m. and

2 p.m. Tuesday, to mark exactly 100 years since the St. Louis County Courthouse was opened.

Visitors can check out the museum-like diorama of a typical courthouse office in the early 1900s, which has been returned to the ground floor from its fifth floor residence. It features period furniture and office gadgets, like a rapid-calculator machine and, of course, the ubiquitous typewriter, complete with a typed letter from that era.

Gary Eckenberg, deputy county administrator, is putting together a walking tour of the building. It will guide visitors through places like the law library (which contains the most original furniture), the fifth floor county attorney’s offices and their three stained-glass domes and one of the more elaborate courtrooms and judges’ chambers.

Don't forget to check out the photo galleries of the historical courthouse attached to this story.