Pioneer Courthouse

I like this building, its cool, I came here often when it housed a post office. by the way it was one of the best post offices, such a cool building. Large and imposing it feels like what I think a courthouse should feel. Unfortunately with its use changed over the years it is now very limited what you can see of the interior.
The stone exterior makes for a great back drop for the park next door, The building just imposes, which I am sure is just what the builders planed.
It has a great history, Read the plaque outside, better yet look it up for more details. The building is the oldest Federal building in the Northwest and the second oldest this side of the Mississippi. So you know it has some great history.
The building was listed n the National Register of Historic
1973. in 1977 It was named a National Historic Landmark.
Hot tip, if you go into the Nines (hotel) and take the elevator up you get great views as you come off the elevators.

This is a nicely restored relic of a building. It is home to the traveling judges of the Federal 9^th Circuit Court of Appeals covering the Western states.
It joins the small Portland library list.
Today legal libraries are online. In the past, they comprised indices of compendia of laws and cases. Now we have much more efficient ways to drain productivity out of society through our legal system!
The library is almost always empty. It has some highly obscure items. It also has an inexplicable collection of slightly outdated travel guides.
The rest of the building is fascinating. There is a grand courtroom and several formal meeting rooms lined with bookshelves filled with cases and codes. It must be the marker in the law profession. The same is filled in residences by bound books bought by the foot for decorating purposes. Sure they are actually read at the same rate.
There are displays everywhere of photos and narratives of the history of the building. Yes you can go up to the very top floor for some nice views.
Well worth a visit. As a federal building, it is subject to airport-​style screening and you must show a picture ID. The day I visited I think the only people in the building were the three guards. When judges visit or a case is held I’m sure it’s a little busier.

Oozes may not be the right verb here, but I can’t think of one better when I say this handsome and remarkable building oozes history. More remarkable is that with only the minor inconvenience of cursory security screening (empty your pockets, go through the scanner, you know the drill), anyone can have access to this 1800’s built Federal Courthouse in use today by Jurists of the Ninth Circuit to hear appeals. We were able to pretty much wander at will, which we did for over an hour «oohing and aahing» over the architectural detail and history.
As we heard a trio of visitors say «COOL» right when the ornate elevator doors opened to reveal the inside we thought that was just what we were thinking throughout. Not just for the architecture of the building but for the fact that citizens are able to freely walk through it. We recommend visitors to Portland who are fans of US history or jurisprudence or architecture do the same. No matter how much time you choose to spend here, it is time well invested.
ACCESSIBILITY
Ramped to create an accessible entry and accessible throughout for people of all physical abilities. Just as one would expect of a Federal, or any, building in 2013. Elevator accesses all three floors. Only the cupola is accessed by stairs.
TEAPOT DOME CONNECTION @ LIBRARY
As first stop left of the lobby you’ll see the law library. Although you’ll need an up to date bar (as in law not libation) card to check anything out, I think, you can borrow a book off the shelf to look at there if you ask the librarian. Remarkable to me was the ability to review a tome while sitting at the library table and chairs that were used between October 22, 1923 — almost 90 years to the day of this review — and May 1924 the Teapot Dome Scandal, until Watergate in the 1970’s, the biggest DC brouhaha in our nation’s history, was investigated. I wished the table could speak about the conversations it had heard.
DETAIL EVERYWHERE — EVEN DOOR KNOBS
You’ll notice all the grand millwork and floors and ceilings and windows for sure, but be sure to check out the little things too, like the scales of justice bas relief detail on the old brass doorknobs.
CUPOLA VIEWS
If you’re able to hike up the undulating, beautiful stairway (check out the handrails) to the cupola, the views from the beautiful windows there are remarkable.
PUBLIC TRANSIT
MAX stop is right outside the door here.
BUILDING HISTORY IS AS INTERESTING AS THE STRUCTURE
1) EARLY DAYS: Ulysses Grant had just started his terms as President in 1869 when this building was started and Oregon had been a state for only a decade. Grant was still in office in 1875 when this Federal Building opened for business but Teddy Roosevelt was President in 1903 when the construction was finally complete.
2) DAYS IN PERIL OF BEING TORN DOWN: By 1933, just as FDR was starting his terms as President, the Feds considered this beautiful Italianate building obsolete and were looking for a buyer. Portland city officials had the grand idea to knock it down and build, of all things, a parking lot. (Some things never change.) Thus began a paso doble of sorts of political maneuvering over several decades to sell the building to either the city or developers which would be stopped by either legal issues or US economic crises or wars.
3) SAVED: By 1969, a hundred years after construction originally started and during the Nixon administration when the building was vacant and the Feds were actively seeking a buyer, Oregon citizens and political allies, as in then US Senator Mark Hatfield ® and US Congresswoman Edith Green (D), persuaded the Feds to fund restoration of the building.
4) RESTORED: Restoraton started in 1973, Nixon had not yet resigend, and the building was once again put into use and designated as a national historic site before the end of the 1970’s, protecting it from the threat of being demolished in the future. From 2003 through 2005, during the Bush (41) administration, a $ 23M seismic and structural update on the building was completed and stands today for what we can only hope will be for once and for all.

If you like to people watch. This is your spot.

A great piece of history.

The Pioneer Courthouse was built in 1869 and is the oldest federal building in the Pacific Northwest, and the second oldest west of the Mississippi River. It is also known as the Pioneer Post Office until that part of the building closed in 2005. The courthouse is one of four primary locations where the United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit hears oral arguments. It also houses the chambers of the Portland-​based judges on the Ninth Circuit. It’s a prominent building just across the street from Pioneer Courthouse Square and in my opinion kind of taken for granted.
I went inside to take a look the last time I was in Portland and it was worth every minute of the 30 – 60 minutes that I spend admiring the various aspects of this building. The old wooden staircases, with ornate wooden balustrades between the 1^st and 4^th Floors, and the period wood carpets covering the threads are beautiful. I also enjoyed the wood paneled courtroom (including the Attorney waiting area), the ornate elevator, the classic law library, and of course the old post office windows. The highlight of the visit was being up in the cupola and looking out into Portland. It was like being in an urban tree house, although the modern buildings have significantly obstructed the previous river and landscape views. The Pioneer Courthouse is open Monday through Friday and a brief and friendly security check (with photo ID) is required.

The cupola is open, the freaking Pioneer Courthouse cupola is open!
I stood waiting for the Max Green Line today staring across at the millions of intricate geometrically organized red bricks of Pioneer Square and had the crazy inkling to turn around and walk up the stairs to the courthouse behind me. Maybe it was my rambunctious toddler running circles around my tired legs or the thought of hanging out for another 15 minutes with the 6^th avenue spangers and guttersnipes that made me quickstep up those stairs, I don’t know, but I did.
Walking by the building a bazillion times and admiring the renovation of the Italianate façade I thought I was pretty familiar with the place. It was a stately stout friend that greeted me on most every trip downtown or return home on the Max. A downtown Portland icon like the White Stag sign standing guard in anticipation of crossing the Burnside Bridge.
The government building/​airport ritual of metal detector and I.D. is in full effect. The older guys running it were packing heat but genuinely friendly in a grandparent type way. They do double duty as amateur museum docents retelling the general lowdown on the place, couldn’t tell if this was actually part of their job description or just something they’ve picked up over the (many) years working here.
Highlights include the decadently wood paneled main courtroom and the aforementioned cupola. The 3 presiding judges sit in the one and only courtroom below a beautiful wall of stained glass Captain America style windows and intricately carved Oregon Ash wood pilasters; their rulings reinforcing the understanding of our U.S. government laws. It’s very impressive but in the back of my head I’m still anticipating the view from the cupola.
The elevator can only get you so far up before the inevitable climb up the ancient wood stairs to the top. It was like climbing a history lesson step by step. I’d heard the stories time and again about the olden days of duty officers watching the riverbank from here waiting for ships to dock and tax their goods. There are plenty of info tagged historic photos but to me it was more like a fancy tree fort in the city with views of the square and taller buildings all around.
I had only planned on hanging out for a few minutes before the Max showed up but it turned into a 45 minute after school special on Portland history come to life. The funny thing was I saw a grand total of 5 people in there the whole time, and they all clearly worked there. The place was empty.
Portland has a lot of great ghost buildings around like the U.S. Customs House or Pittock Mansion but there are still some classics that function day to day like the downtown Multnomah County Library or the City Hall building. Pioneer Courthouse treads dangerously close to the derelict relic but still functions as a legit legal institution. I hope it stays that way.