The Olneyville Times

The most expensive, and perhaps the most inadequate, building in Boston is admitted to be the court house building on Pemberton square. The building has already cost nearly $4,000,000, and now about $1,000,000 more is to be expended on it, under the direction of the commission of three members, which has just been appointed, to give the necessary room and facilities for the proper conduct of the legal business of Suffolk county.

There has been more criticism about this court house than has ever been directed against a public building in Boston, or in the entire state. Much of this criticism has been about the general architecture of the building, but much more has been directed against the lack of facilities for the various courts and offices. Of course it is inevitable that there should be more or less of criticism about such a building when its cost is considered. It is certain that the building hasn't added much to the architectural beauty of the city and, with the exception of the statue of Rufus Choate by French in the corridor, there is little of artistic merit to be found anywhere in the building.

When one considers that with about $2,000,000 the trustees of the public library gave the city a building which has added so much to the pride of its citizens and to the fame of the city, one wonders what might have been done on Pemberton square, with nearly $4,000,000, if the same kind of genius had been exercised in the construction of the Suffolk county court house.