There are many photos of the old courthouse framed by the Gateway Arch in St. Louis, Missouri. I decided on a different POV and it looks pretty good. The courthouse has been around since 1840 and has been remodeled several times. It has heard a state, federal, and city cases over the years. The famous Dred Scott case began in 1846 and all the subsequent trials over the freedom of the slave and his wife were held at the courthouse. Finally in 1857 the U.S. Supreme Court in Washington D.C. decided against the Scotts stating that Americans of African descent were not citizens and enjoyed no rights of an American citizen. Many legal historians say it is the worst decision made by the Supreme Court and helped cause the American Civil War. The courthouse was closed by the City of Saint Louis in 1930. In 1940 President Franklin D. Roosevelt declared that the courthouse would be part of the Jefferson Expansion National Memorial.