This imposing Greek Revival style structure, designed by George Hadfield as Washington's first City Hall/Courthouse, housed the local and federal courts for DC, with judges appointed by the U.S. president with the consent of the U.S. Senate. In 1874 Congress took over city operations and ended home rule, stripping DC of the right to elect a mayor and city council, while the courts and municipal offices remained in the mayor-less City Hall and three commissioners appointed by the U.S. president ran the city for nearly a century until limited home rule was restored. As part of steps to return home rule in 1970, Congress reorganized DC's judicial system, removed local cases from federal jurisdiction, created the Superior Court of the District of Columbia to hear matters ranging from traffic violations to criminal cases, moved the Superior Court's Family Division into the Old City Hall/Courthouse, and made an expanded DC Court of Appeals the District's court of last resort. In 1999 the worn-out courthouse closed for rehabilitation, and ten years later it reopened as the DC Court of Appeals. Among the notable trials held here were the 1867 trial of John Surratt for conspiring with John Wilkes Booth to kill President Lincoln, which ended in acquittal after Surratt testified that he had been in New York on a Confederate spying mission when the assassination occurred, and the 1882 trial of Charles Guiteau, who was convicted of mortally wounding President James Garfield and sentenced to death despite evidence of insanity.
