The Long Island City Courthouse is located at 25-10 Court Square in

Long Island City Long Island City (LIC) is a residential and commercial neighborhood on the extreme western tip of Queens, a borough in New York City. It is bordered by Astoria to the north; the East River to the west; New Calvary Cemetery in Sunnyside to the ...

Queens Queens is a borough of New York City, coextensive with Queens County, in the U.S. state of New York. Located on Long Island, it is the largest New York City borough by area. It is bordered by the borough of Brooklyn at the western tip of Long ...

New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the List of United States cities by population, most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the L ...

. It formerly housed Criminal Court, County Court, the District Attorney staff, and the county sheriff's office. Today the Courthouse is another home to the Civil Term of Supreme Court, Queens County, which also sits in

Jamaica Jamaica (; ) is an island country situated in the Caribbean Sea. Spanning in area, it is the third-largest island of the Greater Antilles and the Caribbean (after Cuba and Hispaniola). Jamaica lies about south of Cuba, and west of His ...

. The courthouse was originally built in 1874 to a design by architect George Hathorne, and was remodeled and enlarged by Peter M. Coco in 1904. It was considered to be one of the most important buildings in Queens County. The Long Island City Courthouse complex was designated a New York City landmark in 1976, and has been listed on the

National Register of Historic Places The National Register of Historic Places (NRHP) is the United States federal government's official list of districts, sites, buildings, structures and objects deemed worthy of preservation for their historical significance or "great artistic v ...

since 1983.

History

The building was erected in 1874 to a design by George Hathorne. The location was decided on as the Queens County Seat moved from

to Long Island City, due to access to nearby transportation. An article in ''Newsday'', written by staff writer Geoffrey Mohan, writes of the relocation of the Queens County Courthouse from

Garden City Park Garden City Park is a Hamlet (New York), hamlet and census-designated place (CDP) located in the Town of North Hempstead in Nassau County, New York, Nassau County, on Long Island, in New York (state), New York, United States. The population was 7, ...

, Nassau County, to Long Island City. Mohan refers to this relocation as one of decades of controversy, and possible reasons contributing to Nassau County's secession from Queens. The courthouse was remodeled and enlarged by Peter M. Coco in 1904 after a fire destroyed a portion of it. In its remodeling the building was raised from two stories to four stories in order to accommodate the needs of the court. The courthouse is designed in what has been variously described as a Neo-

English Renaissance The English Renaissance was a Cultural movement, cultural and Art movement, artistic movement in England from the early 16th century to the early 17th century. It is associated with the pan-European Renaissance that is usually regarded as beginni ...

, neoclassical, or Beaux Arts

architectural style An architectural style is a set of characteristics and features that make a building or other structure notable or historically identifiable. It is a sub-class of style in the visual arts generally, and most styles in architecture relate closely ...

and is made of stone, ceramic tile, limestone, and metal. Two

jail A prison, also known as a jail, gaol (dated, standard English, Australian, and historically in Canada), penitentiary (American English and Canadian English), detention center (or detention centre outside the US), correction center, correc ...

s were formerly part of the complex, but were replaced by a

parking garage A multistorey car park (British and Singapore English) or parking garage (American English), also called a multistory, parking building, parking structure, parkade (mainly Canadian), parking ramp, parking deck or indoor parking, is a build ...

in 1988. The parking structure was designed by Chicago-based

architectural firm In the United States, an architectural firm or architecture firm is a business that employs one or more licensed architects and practices the profession of architecture; while in South Africa, the United Kingdom, Ireland, Denmark and other countri ...

Skidmore, Owings and Merrill Skidmore, Owings & Merrill (SOM) is an American architectural, urban planning and engineering firm. It was founded in 1936 by Louis Skidmore and Nathaniel A. Owings, Nathaniel Owings in Chicago, Illinois. In 1939, they were joined by engineer Jo ...

. The courthouse and its surrounding complex has undergone rejuvenation and renovations in the mid-2000s. Liz Skalka, a ''Chronicle'' correspondent, reported on August 24, 2006 that: "The ornate courthouse began undergoing repairs in May that included renovations on its brick exterior and new roofing on the main building and its wings. Both are to protect against water damage. A prominent third floor courtroom, noted for its two-story stained glass ceiling, is also being restored, and will receive new wooden flooring similar to its original."

History

See also

References

Further reading