- Vance Lauderdale as “Authority”
I spend a lot of time hanging around the Shelby County Courthouse, waiting for my various trials to begin, and I’ve noticed that people — far too many people, if you ask me — usually walk right past the magnificent statues that guard that entrances without even noticing them.
So I thought I’d change that by telling you about them, and I think you’ll be impressed. After all, it’s true that a Lauderdale (I needn’t name names) served as the model for “Authority” (shown here).
But first, let me chat about the courthouse, which the authors of Memphis: An Architectural Guide say exudes “serene classical confidence.” As I do, myself! This truly magnificent building opened in 1910 to replace a jumbled collection of courtrooms that had previously been jammed into rented space at the old Overton Hotel at Main and Poplar. A plaque outside notes that this is the largest and most ornate courthouse in Tennessee, and it would be hard to argue with that. The city fathers (and mothers) wisely chose the sturdiest materials available (blue limestone from a quarry in Bedford, Indiana) and the best designers for this important civic project.
A courthouse building commission (you can’t do anything in Memphis without forming a commission first, you know) selected the prestigious firm of Rogers and Hale, with offices in New York and Chicago. James Gamble Rogers was the primary architect, because (according to the official Report of the Commission published in 1910), he “was found to be specially qualified in designing buildings of a monumental character.”
But about those statues …