WATCH: Inside the Federal Circuit’s hidden history ahead of America 250
The Wright brothers worked here. NASA was born here. The suffrage movement was headquartered here. For one day only, a working federal courthouse is opening its doors to reveal centuries of hidden history — and an AI exhibit that brings it to life.
Just in time for America’s 250th celebration, Circuit Librarian Jessica Perovich and Chief Judge Kimberly Moore join Washington Times reporter Mary McCue Bell to detail the courthouse’s surprising ties to history ahead of a rare, one-day public opening on July 3rd.
I’m Mary McCue Bell with The Washington Times, and right now I’m in the courtyard of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit, and we have special access to the Federal Circuit Court Innovation and Law Center that will be open on July 3rd, giving special access to the public for multiple different historical sites. The center is normally reserved for scheduled school groups, but this one-day opening offers rare public access. Circuit Librarian Jessica Perovich walked us through the court building. [PEROVICH] Our courthouse is right here. What’s really cool about our court is we’re made up of historical houses. So not only do we have this magnificent court building, but to the next to us we have the Tayloe House, which was built in 1828, the Cosmos Club building, and then Dolley Madison’s house, which was built in 1820. So this is our library. This is our law library. So this is used by the law clerks, the judges. People come in here and they’re like, what’s a law library? Why is there so much NASA stuff in here? So Dolley Madison’s house was the first headquarters of NASA. In the 50s and 60s, they were headquartered here when they became NASA. And then the press conference for the Mercury 7 astronauts, their press conference was in our building. So when they introduced Americans to the first astronauts to go into space, it was here. And then… Our favorite part is, you see a little monkey right there? That’s Miss Baker. The first primates to survive space travel, their press conference was in our building. Because we’ll have the kids come in, and they get very excited to see all the space stuff, but they always ask questions about the books. [BELL] And I’m assuming all of these are online from NASA? [PEROVICH] Yes. So now we’re going into Tayloe House. So this was built in 1828, so everyone will get to explore this space. What’s really special about this building is the headquarters of the suffragists. So from 1915 to 1918, they were headquartered here, Alice Paul, everyone. When they would picket the White House, they would leave from this building. So this is the heart of Suffragist Hall. So in here specifically, the suffrage movement, they said women weren’t smart enough to vote, that they shouldn’t have the right. And so they would argue that women did. They were inventors, they even held patents. So we have Inventors’ Corner here. So these are all women that were suffragists that held patents. So they get to learn about them too. So they hired Carl Wernicke, an architect, to help preserve as much of the houses as possible, but build the government building kind of into that landscape. You’re in Dolley House. This is built in 1820 by Richard Cutts, so that’s James Madison’s brother-in-law. He had financial problems, so James Madison bought it so his sister-in-law wouldn’t be homeless. The Madisons, they lived at the White House, Montpelier, but when James Madison passed away, Dolley moved in here with her sister. So she’s known for saving the portrait of George Washington. If you heard of the Cosmos Club too, a scientific organization still around today, they were founded in this building as well. National Geographic Society, they were founded through the Cosmos Club in this building. A lot of people lived here. General George McClellan lived here during the Civil War. So Lincoln would come here regularly to visit with him to talk about the war. One story we like to tell the kids a lot is that one night McClellan was at a wedding. He came home, was told Lincoln was waiting for him. Instead of meeting with the president like you would do, he went upstairs, he went to bed, leaving the president waiting. So Lincoln left in good spirits, you know, wasn’t upset, but he wouldn’t meet with him again in this building. [BELL] Chief Judge Kimberly A. Moore envisioned the historical aspects inside the building as an educational environment. So she and her team began transforming the space into more than just a place for law clerks and judges, but somewhere history can be remembered. [MOORE] Coming out of COVID, we had excess funding because the building had been closed for 15 months. And that was a perfect opportunity to renovate historic houses, to try to restore them, make it so that Dolley would have been proud of the house that we now have. Because over the hundreds of years it’s sat here, it has been modernized. So we wanted to restore it. We wanted to give it back some of its own history. In the course of doing that, our library team started digging into what was the history of these buildings. My mind was blown when I learned that the Wright brothers lived here while working on planes, that NASA was first headquartered here, that the women’s suffrage movement was founded here and they protested the White House from this location. Secretary of State Seward, that assassination attempt took place right here in this collection of buildings. Alexander Graham Bell would have been here as a member of the Cosmos Club. Thomas Edison. So all of these giants in history pass through these halls. [BELL] Why open it to the public now and why as a part of America 250? [MOORE] Well, we’re a working courthouse. So we hear cases every day and we don’t have a dedicated separate space. So when a school field trip comes through, they are walking amongst the judges and walking amongst the court staff while we’re actually conducting operations. July 3rd, the 250th anniversary of our nation, was the perfect opportunity to just throw the doors open. Almost every member of our court staff has volunteered to come and work that day, to open the doors to the public, to welcome the public in. We’ll have impersonators playing the roles of historical figures. Dolley Madison will be here herself. I don’t know how many Americans have had the opportunity to talk to a judge about what it’s like to be a judge or to participate in a mock trial. You know, we’re going to put kids on the bench in robes. We’re going to give them gavels. We’re going to let them get a taste of what life is like in the judiciary. [NELL] If you had to give your own tour and walk through everything all over again, what would you want to point out to people? [MOORE] We plan on having an exhibit that is a model of Dolley Madison’s parlor where she stands in the middle of the room and hosts one of her famous cocktail parties. And all of the people in the room will be historical figures who have been in these halls. And so the idea behind it is it’s Dolley’s perfect cocktail party through time. Everyone who’s ever walked through these halls will be present in one room at one time. On July 3rd, we’re unveiling a new AI-related exhibit, actually two, but one is Paul Jennings. Paul Jennings lived in this building and he was critical in fighting for abolition. He was part of the Underground Railroad and he participated in the greatest slave escape attempt in history all while living in this building. And so Paul Jennings is now brought to life through AI tools and people can actually interact with him and ask him questions. [BELL] This one-day opening uses innovative technology to not only preserve history but bring it back to life. After July 3rd, the center will return to school group access while planning future public events. So what prompted this initiative and its one-day opening? [MOORE] America 250 is the opportunity to celebrate our nation and to do whatever we can within the judiciary to help educate the public about our role in democracy. The public needs to have confidence in the judiciary. We’re one of the three branches of government. And if you don’t have confidence in your government, then that’s bad. So we want to demystify the judicial operations. We want kids, we want the civic public to understand what we do and how we do it. Because knowing more about the process, not having it be so closed off, will really help educate people about it and give them greater confidence in the decision-making.
Read more from Mary McCue Bell