Howard T. Markey National Courts Building

The Howard T. Markey National Courts Building (formerly the National Courts Building) is a courthouse in Washington, D.C., which houses the United States Court of Federal Claims and the United States Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit. It is located at 717 Madison Place NW, east of Lafayette Square and north of the White House, and borders the Benjamin Ogle Tayloe House, the former Cosmos Club building, and the Dolley Madison House at 721 Madison Place.

Originally, the plan for the courthouse and an office building for White House staff had called for the historic houses on both sides of Lafayette Square to be razed. First Lady Jacqueline Kennedy, a believer in historic preservation, urged President John F. Kennedy to find an alternative solution. John Carl Warnecke was tapped by President John F. Kennedy to be the architect and come up with a plan to preserve the houses. [cite web | title =Lafayette, He Is Here | work = Time | date = December 13, 1963| publisher = Time/Life | url = http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,875463,00.html | format = html |accessdate= 2008-07-26] Warnecke and Jacqueline Kennedy envisioned that the courthouse and the New Executive Office Building, a twin structure to be built on the other side of Lafayette Square, would form a backdrop for the historic houses. The two buildings remain distinctive in their own right. [cite book| last=Cowen| first=Wilson| authorlink=Arnold Wilson Cowen| coauthors=Philip Nichols, Jr., and Marion T. Bennett| title=The United States Court of Claims: A History; Part II: Origin, Development, Jurisdiction, 1855–1978| location: Washington, D.C.| publisher= Committee on the Bicentennial of Independence and the Constitution of the Judicial Conference of the United States| year=1978| page= p. 126]

The Building Committee included Chief Judge John Marvin Jones, then-Commissioner Marion Tinsley Bennett, and then-Chief Commissioner Arnold Wilson Cowen. The building was dedicated on September 20, 1967. [Ibid., p. 130]

The courthouse was initially built for the United States Court of Customs and Patent Appeals and the United States Court of Claims, so when the two courts were abolished and merged to create the Federal Circuit in 1982, they already had a domicile in common.

In 1998, President Bill Clinton signed legislation renaming the National Courts Building after Howard Thomas Markey. The rededication celebration was held on October 23, 1998, during a special joint session of the Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit and the Court of Federal Claims. [http://www.isba.org/association/may06bn/39.htm]

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