The Florida Bar Center.

• Author: Killian, Mark D.

Dedicated to Better Service to Members of the Bar and of the Public

Standing on a five-acre tract with a commanding view of the Capitol in Tallahassee, The Florida Bar Center is modeled after the historic Colonial Williamsburg architectural style, rich in the traditions of American law and freedom.

With more than 47,000 square feet to serve the needs of the Bar's 66,482 members and the citizens of Florida, the Bar Center is often described as one of the most beautiful buildings in Tallahassee. The Flemish bond brickwork structure with six large pillars at the front entrance is surrounded in a park-like setting by pecan, walnut, pear, and stately live oak trees. The center stands in stark contrast to the space allotted the Bar when it was integrated 50 years ago. Then there were 3,000 members and Bar headquarters occupied one office in the Supreme Court building. By 1963, when the fundraising drive was launched to build the Bar's permanent home, the membership had grown to 8,500 and the Bar occupied about 3,000 square feet of rental space in the Petroleum Building, plus a machine room and limited storage area in the basement of the adjacent Supreme Court.

But where did it all start? Who gave building a permanent home for the Bar its first impetus? Was it during President Donald Carroll's administration in 1956 when the Board of Governors authorized the hiring of additional staff and amended the Integration Rule? Or was it--as Judge Charles B. Fulton said at the dedication of the Bar Center in October 1966--really Justice Glenn Terrell who placed the cornerstone when he wrote the Supreme Court's 1949 opinion granting the petition of the Florida State Bar Association asking that the Bar of Florida be integrated into one professional organization? Or was it past executive director Paul Comstock's urging in 1960 that "the construction of a spacious headquarters building is clearly a visible goal."

All these occasions and personalities played a part in the dream for a Florida Bar headquarters building, said Marshall R. Cassedy, the Bar's executive director from 1961 to 1980.

The original 20,412 square foot, three-story structure built on 2.5 acres of land in what used to be known as the Smoky Hollow community in Tallahassee, three blocks from the state Capitol, was completed in 1966. Ten years later, a 23,000 square foot addition was built to accommodate the needs of the fast-growing profession. Then, in 1988, the Bar purchased the adjacent three story, 45,000 square foot IBM building...