Evening star., 1938-01-22
Room in Which Supreme
Court Held First Session
To the Editor Of The Star:

To the Editor Of The Star:
On Wednesday and Thursday The
Star printed items concerning q cere-
mony in the room Of the Capitol which
is now the ofice Of the sergeant at arms
of the Senate and which was formerly
, the of1ice Of the marshal Of the Supreme
Court Of the United States. They say
that that room was the first meeting
place Of the Supreme Court in the Capt.
tol. That statement appears to be in
correct.
The statement was based upon para
graph In Charles Warren's History Of
the Supreme Court" In writing which
that author had been misled by Glenn
Browns History Of the Capitol" It
is quite true that Congress authorized
the use of one Of the committee rooms
on the first floor by the Supreme Court.
Both authors have thought that this
referred to the present main floor Of the
building. In 1901, however, the Senate
sat on the ground floor, so that it would
not have been unnatural to call that
the first floor. In the National Intelli-
gencer for August 26, 1847, page 3, col
umn S, there Is printed letter from an
old inhabitant which says that in early
days the ground floor was referred to as
the first floor. In the fine arts division
Of the Library Of Congress there is a
plan of the ground floor which was given
in 1903 to B. H. Latrobe, the new archi-
tect Of the Capitol, as the only existing
drawing Of the building 1t contains no
lettering saying which floor 1t is called.
There is later plan Of the present main
floor dated about 1877. It is not marked
as either the first or the second floor,
but is there identified as the principal
floor" 1t seems, therefore, that Glenn
Brown went too far in saying that the
first floor of 1901 was the present main
floor.
Brown, however, went still further. In
plate 36 he printed plan Of the upper
floor and in his text volume /, page 28)
he said that the Supreme Court sat in
the room marked No. /. He cited no
authority in support of his statement
and the statement was, moreover, am
biguous, for there were two rooms
marked No. on that plan, one used by
House committees and one used by Sen
ate committees. Warren relied upon
Brown and, without giving any reason
for his choice, said that the court met
the No. room which was afterward the
oh1ce OF the marshal of the Supreme
Court.
There are. however, substantial rea-
sons for saying that the court sat in
another room. In the manuscript divi-
sion of the Library Of Congress there are
copies of letters sent by B. H. Latrobe,
the architect Of the Capitol, to President
Jefferson on August 81, 1905, and on
September 2, 1907, in which he furnished
sketches which, in connection with the
plan given to Latrobe in 1903, show that
the courtroom was on the ground floor
Of the building in one of the four rooms
on the western side, the third room from
the north. 1t is true that those are not
the original letters nor are they copies
which were made by Latrobe, but they
are part of series of copies of letters by
Latrobe relating to the Capitol which
were secured by the Library of Congress
long ago and without any special refer
ence to the first home of the Supreme
Court in Washington.
In view of those letters and in the
absence of satisfactory reasons to the
contrary it seems that when the Su-
preme Court came to Washington it sat
In room on the western side of the
ground floor of the Capitol and not on
the eastern side of what is now the
principal floor" of that building.
ROBERT P. REEDER.