as seen from the RSA Tower in 1994, soon after the Court was completed. A handsome building, perhaps Palladian style. The Dexter Ave Methodist Church is in the foreground, and the RSA’s Alabama Center for Commerce is in the background.  The structure incorporates grand concepts. Its huge lobby features a view towards a waterfall backed up to Washington Avenue; and the actual courtroom itself is placed dead center, with its ceiling shaped by the dome you see. These precepts caused layout problems difficult to overcome.

The lobby was the scene of the national furor over Chief Justice Roy Moore and his famous 10-Commandments Monument. The pics below show Roy Moore admiring his creation before he was removed from office, and (on the right) the building staff hauling it away in response to a court order.  The center figure of the five is the Building Administrator, and a Rotary tablemate of mine for many years. I’m surprised that the massive stone didn’t over-stress the floor beams.

-Charles Humphries