Queens Borough Hall is a public building in the Kew Gardens neighborhood of 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 ...

borough of

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 ...

which houses the Office of the Queens Borough President and other city offices and court space. It is located in the Kew Gardens municipal facilities stretch bounded by

Queens Boulevard Queens Boulevard is a major thoroughfare in the New York City borough of Queens connecting Midtown Manhattan, via the Queensboro Bridge, to Jamaica. It is long and forms part of New York State Route 25. Queens Boulevard runs northwest to s ...

and Union Turnpike among other roads. Designed by architects William Gehron and Andrew J. Thomas in the stripped classical style, it was built between March and November 1940 at a cost of some $1,800,000, low for its size. Featuring a red brick facade, was 580 feet long upon construction and four stories high; the office suite for the borough president and his or her cabinet was designed for the center of the building. The building was opened on December 4, 1940, with Mayor

Fiorello H. La Guardia Fiorello Henry LaGuardia (; born Fiorello Enrico LaGuardia, ; December 11, 1882September 20, 1947) was an American attorney and politician who represented New York in the House of Representatives and served as the 99th Mayor of New York City fr ...

and many other city officials in attendance. The structure subsequently won a design award from the Queens Chamber of Commerce. The building bares a striking resemblance to the

Naval Ordnance Laboratory The Naval Ordnance Laboratory (NOL) was a facility in the White Oak area of Montgomery County, Maryland. It is now used as the headquarters of the U.S. Food and Drug Administration. Origins The U.S. Navy Mine Unit, later the Mine Laboratory at ...

Administration building in

Maryland Maryland ( ) is a state in the Mid-Atlantic region of the United States. It shares borders with Virginia, West Virginia, and the District of Columbia to its south and west; Pennsylvania to its north; and Delaware and the Atlantic Ocean t ...

, (now

Food and Drug Administration The United States Food and Drug Administration (FDA or US FDA) is a federal agency of the Department of Health and Human Services. The FDA is responsible for protecting and promoting public health through the control and supervision of food ...

headquarters) which was built in the same stripped classical style. A previous Queens Borough Hall, built around 1910, had been located in the

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 ...

neighborhood. Queens Borough Hall was designed to serve as the center of civic life, and had other functions, such as a post office, when first built. It has become a popular spot for marriages, with some 9,000 of them being performed in the hall during 2006. Fridays are the most popular day for the ceremonies, which are presided over by the borough's deputy city clerk in a small chapel.

Frederick MacMonnies Frederick William MacMonnies (September 28, 1863 – March 22, 1937) was the best known expatriate American sculptor of the Beaux-Arts school, as successful and lauded in France as he was in the United States. He was also a highly accomplish ...

's heroically scaled and controversial marble allegory of ''

Civic Virtue Civic virtue is the harvesting of habits important for the success of a society. Closely linked to the concept of citizenship, civic virtue is often conceived as the dedication of citizens to the common welfare of each other even at the cost of ...

'' (1909–22) was moved outside Queens Borough Hall in 1941, and decades later was still drawing criticism from those who viewed it as depicting "masculinity as virtue and femininity as vice". In 2012 it was moved to

Green-Wood Cemetery Green-Wood Cemetery is a cemetery in the western portion of Brooklyn, New York City. The cemetery is located between South Slope/ Greenwood Heights, Park Slope, Windsor Terrace, Borough Park, Kensington, and Sunset Park, and lies several blo ...

Brooklyn Brooklyn () is a borough of New York City, coextensive with Kings County, in the U.S. state of New York. Kings County is the most populous county in the State of New York, and the second-most densely populated county in the United States, be ...

. At the east end of Queens Borough Hall on 82nd Avenue, a retired

New York City Subway The New York City Subway is a rapid transit system owned by the government of New York City and leased to the New York City Transit Authority, an affiliate agency of the state-run Metropolitan Transportation Authority (MTA). Opened on October ...

redbird Redbird, Redbirds, Red Bird or Red Birds may refer to: Bird * Redbird, another name for the northern cardinal * Redbird, another name for the summer tanager * Red bird of paradise, a near threatened species Mythological * An East Asian variant ...

train, R33 car #9075, was previously on display signed as a 7 train. The Redbird car was formerly a visitor center for the Queens Borough Hall, but the visitor center closed in 2015 due to low patronage, and the car was then briefly used as a landmark and for movie shoots. Following years of degradation and neglect caused by apathetic Borough Hall officials, it was decided the car would be put up for auction; It sold for $235,700 in July 2022. This is part of a greater overall effort by Borough President "Donovan Richards" to " eimaginethe surroundings at borough hall."

References

{{reflist

External links

Department of Citywide Administrative Services page
Government buildings completed in 1940 Government buildings in Queens, New York Government of New York City Kew Gardens, Queens 1940 establishments in New York City

See also

References

External links