The

Dutchess County Dutchess County is a county in the U.S. state of New York. As of the 2020 census, the population was 295,911. The county seat is the city of Poughkeepsie. The county was created in 1683, one of New York's first twelve counties, and later organ ...

Courthouse is located at 10 Market Street in downtown Poughkeepsie,

New York New York most commonly refers to: * New York City, the most populous city in the United States, located in the state of New York * New York (state), a state in the northeastern United States New York may also refer to: Film and television * '' ...

, United States. Built in

1903 Events January * January 1 – Edward VII is proclaimed Emperor of India. * January 19 – The first west–east transatlantic radio broadcast is made from the United States to England (the first east–west broadcast having been ...

, it is the third county courthouse to stand on that site. The first was authorized by the provincial assembly in 1717 and built in 1720, and would host New York's debate on ratifying the U.S. Constitution during the brief period when Poughkeepsie served as the state

capital Capital may refer to: Common uses * Capital city, a municipality of primary status ** List of national capital cities * Capital letter, an upper-case letter Economics and social sciences * Capital (economics), the durable produced goods used f ...

in 1788. It was destroyed in an 1806 fire. Three years later the

state legislature A state legislature is a legislative branch or body of a political subdivision in a federal system. Two federations literally use the term "state legislature": * The legislative branches of each of the fifty state governments of the United Sta ...

appropriated funds for a new one, which stood for almost a century. An early tenant beside the courts was brewer Matthew Vassar, later founder of Vassar College, who ran an alehouse and oyster bar in the basement. Dutchess County Court House Poughkeepsie 1809 to 1902

Dutchess County Court House Poughkeepsie 1809 to 1902

It was replaced by the current building, a four-story Classical Revival designed by local architect

William J. Beardsley William J. Beardsley (1872 – March 29, 1934) was a Poughkeepsie, New York-based architect. Biography He was born in Poughkeepsie, New York, the son of one of Poughkeepsie's leading sash and blind manufacturers. He studied architecture ...

. Faced with red brick, the half-million dollar structure featured

Palladian windows A Venetian window (also known as a Serlian window) is a large tripartite window which is a key element in Palladian architecture. Although Sebastiano Serlio (1475–1554) did not invent it, the window features largely in the work of the Italian a ...

in the second and fifth-story center

bays A bay is a recessed, coastal body of water that directly connects to a larger main body of water, such as an ocean, a lake, or another bay. A large bay is usually called a gulf, sea, sound, or bight. A cove is a small, circular bay with a narr ...

with

stucco Stucco or render is a construction material made of aggregates, a binder, and water. Stucco is applied wet and hardens to a very dense solid. It is used as a decorative coating for walls and ceilings, exterior walls, and as a sculptural and a ...

decoration above. It opened and was dedicated just before the end of 1903. Later alterations were made under the direction of Charles Cooke, who designed the nearby offices of the '' Poughkeepsie Journal''. The building's

cornice In architecture, a cornice (from the Italian ''cornice'' meaning "ledge") is generally any horizontal decorative moulding that crowns a building or furniture element—for example, the cornice over a door or window, around the top edge of a ...

is the only element that has been significantly changed from the original design.Larger FRP

corbel In architecture, a corbel is a structural piece of stone, wood or metal jutting from a wall to carry a superincumbent weight, a type of bracket. A corbel is a solid piece of material in the wall, whereas a console is a piece applied to the s ...

s and dentils bolted on in mid 1980s. It has also been joined to the

Poughkeepsie Trust Company The Poughkeepsie Trust Company building is located on Main Street in that city in the U.S. state of New York. It is immediately to the east of, and joined to, the Dutchess County Court House. Local architect Percival Lloyd designed the building, ...

building to its immediate east on Main Street, which serves as the

district attorney In the United States, a district attorney (DA), county attorney, state's attorney, prosecuting attorney, commonwealth's attorney, or state attorney is the chief prosecutor and/or chief law enforcement officer representing a U.S. state in a l ...

's offices. In 1982, it was added to the National Register of Historic Places. Today, it houses judges' chambers and clerks' offices as well as courtrooms. Most of the court's lesser functions, such as property recordkeeping, have been moved to an annex next door, built in the 1960s. In the late 1990s, it was the venue for former Dutchess assistant district attorney Stephen Pagones's

defamation Defamation is the act of communicating to a third party false statements about a person, place or thing that results in damage to its reputation. It can be spoken (slander) or written (libel). It constitutes a tort or a crime. The legal defini ...

suit against Al Sharpton,

C. Vernon Mason C. Vernon Mason is a former lawyer and civil rights advocate from Tucker, Arkansas. Best known for his involvement in several high-profile New York City cases in the 1980s, including the Bernhard Goetz, Howard Beach, and Tawana Brawley incidents, ...

and Alton Maddox over allegations they made against him during the

Tawana Brawley Tawana may refer to: * Tswana an ethnic group in Botswana *List of rulers of Tawana People *Tawana Brawley rape allegations *Tawana Kupe Zimbabwean-South African academic *Kea Tawana Kea Tawana (c. 1935 – August 4, 2016) was an American artist k ...

affair.

References

External links

Court website
Judge Stephen L. Greller (Criminal)

{{National Register of Historic Places in New York County courthouses in New York (state) Courthouses on the National Register of Historic Places in New York (state) Government buildings completed in 1903 Buildings and structures in Poughkeepsie, New York National Register of Historic Places in Poughkeepsie, New York