Land for the courthouse was donated in 1816 by Judge John Baptiste Charles Lucas and St. Louis founder Auguste Chouteau.

[3] Lucas and Chouteau required the land be "used forever as the site on which the courthouse of the County of St. Louis should be erected.

In 1861, William Rumbold replaced the cupola with an Italian Renaissance cast iron dome modeled on St. Peter's Basilica in Vatican City.

The United States Capitol dome, built at the same time during the American Civil War, is also modeled on the basilica.

The St. Louis dome was completed in 1864, and Karl Ferdinand Wimar was commissioned to paint murals, which are featured in the rotunda.

[10] The courthouse was abandoned by the city in 1930 after it built the Civil Courts Building, and descendants of Chouteau and Lucas sued to regain ownership.

President Franklin Roosevelt declared in an Executive Order the area would be a national monument and landscape design, sidewalks and other infrastructure was added.