It is easy to miss the county courthouse in the midst of the bombast of the capitol complex (
DA20) but it deserves a look. Its sleek Moderne styling suggests that Cret and his associates learned much from Harry Sternfeld's federal building in Philadelphia (
PH44). The array of sculptures on the exterior reflects the Beaux-Arts overlay of iconography common to the era; many of the figures are by Carl Jennewein, the sculptor of the Philadelphia Museum of Art's west pediment (
PH123). A youthful male embodies the Triumph of Law over Evil, a powerful image as American soldiers fought for global liberation while the building was being completed. Within, a remarkable array of colored marbles on the floors and rare woods on the walls marks the shift toward the celebration of materials over detail that characterized midcentury modernism.