General designs were prepared, and then, to unify every part of the design, a model was made which was publicly exhibited in the Rotunda of the Capitol for a number of months. The Supreme Court Chamber is placed on the main axis of the plan. It is characterized by appropriate simplicity and quiet dignity. It is classical in style, 82 feet by 91 feet square in its extreme dimensions, about 64 feet square inside the columns, and 45 feet high from floor to ceiling. The second floor contains a law library and rooms for members of the bar and conference rooms. The third floor contains a law library and reading room. The justices’ rooms are on the first floor, convenient to the court room. A number of rooms for the use of lawyers are provided in the second story. Two large conference rooms are provided on the main floor, and on this floor also rooms are provided for the Attorney General, the Solicitor General, the clerk of the Supreme Court, and the marshal. Convenient rooms and special telephone booths have been provided for the press. The appropriation for the building authorized by Congress was $9,740,000. The building was designed by Cass Gilbert, architect, and the erection was under the charge of the Supreme Court Building Commission, Chief Justice Charles Evans Hughes, chairman. David Lynn, Architect of the Capitol, a member of the commission, was the contracting officer. HOMES OF THE SUPREME COURT OF THE UNITED STATES The Supreme Court of the United States is the major tribunal of one of three coordinate branches of the Government--the judicial. During the 148 years of its existence the Supreme Court has sat in eight different places, always in or near the Capitol or place of meeting of the legislative body. Thus it met, first, in New York; second, in Independence Hall, Philadelphia; third, in the basement of the Capitol, where it was when the British burned the Capitol in 1814; fourth, while the Capitol was being rebuilt the Supreme Court occupied the residence of the clerk of the court; fifth, when the Capitol wings were built it moved into its former chamber; sixth, when driven out by an explosion and fire in 1898 it occupied the committee room of the Senate Committee on the District of Columbia, of which Senator McMillan was chairman, and also sat for a brief period in the Judiciary Committee Room. It then moved back into what was the old Senate Chamber until 1859 which was designed by Benjamin Latrobe, after the model of a Greek theater, a semicircular hall with a low-domed ceiling. It is historic. Here Webster replied to Hayne; here Calhoun debated with Clay and Webster; and in it the Electoral Commission sat which decided the presidential contest between Hayes and Tilden in 1877. CHAPTER XXIII THE GOVERNMENT OF THE DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA The first Government of the District of Columbia consisted of three Commissioners appointed by the President of the United States. Then 21 mayors served from 1802 to 1871.