The Oklahoma Judicial Center is the headquarters of the Oklahoma Supreme Court, the Oklahoma Court of Criminal Appeals, and the Judiciary of Oklahoma. Situated near the Oklahoma State Capitol, the original structure, designed by the architectural firm Layton, Hicks & Forsyth, was built between 1929-1930 as the home of the Oklahoma Historical Society and was listed on the National Register of Historic Places as the Oklahoma Historical Society Building in 1990. The society moved to the nearby Oklahoma History Center when it opened in 2005. An annex was completed in 2011.
Description
The Oklahoma Judicial Center comprises the former Oklahoma Historical Society Building, also known as the Wiley Post Historical Building, and a newer adjacent annex located on the Capitol Park grounds of the Oklahoma State Capitol complex giving the center a combined floor space of . The Judicial Center occupies a lot bound between N. Lincoln Blvd. to the west and N. Lindsay Ave. to the east from NE 19th St. to NE 21st St. The Judicial Center annex is immediately adjacent facing N. Lindsay Ave. The Oklahoma State Capitol is located across N. Lincoln Blvd. to the northwest. The center is bounded to the south and east by the Capitol-Lincoln Terrace Historic District located across N. Lindsay Ave. and NE 19th St.
Exterior
The original Historical Society Building is a three-story structure with a full basement. The exterior features a facade of Indiana limestone with the base and steps composed of Georgia granite designed in Classical Revival style. The building is elevated six feet above Lincoln Blvd. which runs in front of the main entrance. Ten two-story tapered columns with Ionic capitals are aligned along the front facade between two square limestone end columns. The columns uphold an entablature inscribed with Oklahoma Historical Society in the center with three wreathes, symbolic of academic buildings, on each side. Above these along the lower edge of the cornice are dentils combined with egg and dart moulding as part of a frieze that includes lion masks. Atop the entablature lies the antefix featuring floral anthemions, one of the building's common motifs.
A shallow porch with a beamed ceiling lies behind the Ionic columns. A porch rail is composed of short stone balustrades connecting the columns. Opposite the stairs leading to the porch are two centrally placed bronze entrance doors with a decorative iron grille clerestory. Alongside the entrance are vertical stone relief panels supporting an entablature and antefix resembling those on the front facade. Floral medallions alternate with vertebrate leaf bands to decorate the relief panels. From the porch, the granite steps descend in two wide flights separated by a small brick plaza. Three-dimensional volutes are on each side of the lower flight.
Bays extend from the north and south ends of the building. The single, steel casement windows on the first and second floors alternate with plain stone pilasters along all elevations. On the front elevation, an intricate medallion design is located above first floor windows while second floor windows are adorned above with a scrolling foliage design. Windows on the side elevations are not decorated. Around the building is a belt course composed of a single row of dentils. On the front facade, each wing holds secondary entrances designed as simpler versions of the main entrance. These entrances are topped with simple entablatures with dentils and have windows on each side with exterior grilles resembling the clerestory over the main entrance. Light fixtures on each side of the secondary entrances complement the grilles and anthemions. The building's cornerstone is located on the northwest corner. The rear facade of the original building holds multi-pane windows larger than those along the other elevations.