Staten Island Borough Hall is the primary municipal building for the
borough
A borough is an administrative division in various English-speaking countries. In principle, the term ''borough'' designates a self-governing walled town, although in practice, official use of the term varies widely.
History
In the Middle Ag ...
of
Staten Island
Staten Island ( ) is a borough of New York City, coextensive with Richmond County, in the U.S. state of New York. Located in the city's southwest portion, the borough is separated from New Jersey by the Arthur Kill and the Kill Van Kull an ...
in
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 is located at 10 Richmond Terrace, next to the
Richmond County Courthouse and opposite the
St. George Terminal
St. George Terminal is a ferry, railway, bus, and park and ride transit center in the St. George neighborhood of Staten Island, New York City. It is located at the intersection of Richmond Terrace and Bay Street, near Staten Island Borough Ha ...
of the
Staten Island Ferry
The Staten Island Ferry is a passenger ferry route operated by the New York City Department of Transportation. The ferry's single route runs through New York Harbor between the New York City boroughs of Manhattan and Staten Island, with ferry ...
. Borough Hall houses the
Borough President's office, offices of the Departments of Buildings and Transportation, and other civic offices.
The 1906
French Renaissance style brick and limestone building was designed by
Carrere and Hastings Carrere or Carrère may refer to:
As a name
* Georges Carrère (1897–1986), French classical violinist
* Edward Carrere (1906–1984), Mexican art director
* Emmanuel Carrère (1957–), French author, screenwriter, and director
* Fernando Car ...
, following the consolidation of New York City in 1898.
John Carrere was a resident of Staten Island and he helped select the dramatic hilltop site of Borough Hall. The interior of the building contains a series of thirteen
WPA
WPA may refer to:
Computing
*Wi-Fi Protected Access, a wireless encryption standard
*Windows Product Activation, in Microsoft software licensing
* Wireless Public Alerting (Alert Ready), emergency alerts over LTE in Canada
* Windows Performance An ...
murals illustrating events in Staten Island history, painted by local artist
Frederick Charles Stahr.
The building is a
New York City Landmark
The New York City Landmarks Preservation Commission (LPC) is the New York City agency charged with administering the city's Landmarks Preservation Law. The LPC is responsible for protecting New York City's architecturally, historically, and cu ...
and was 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 ...
in 1983.
Murals
Borough Hall was originally designed with thirteen arched niches on the main floor, designed to showcase a series of murals. Each niche is high by wide. Frederick Charles Stahr, who grew up on Staten Island and had studied painting in Munich and at the Academy of Design in Rome, had been promised a commission by fellow Staten Islander John Carrere, but no money for murals was available when the building was finished in 1906.
Thirty years later, Stahr applied for funding through the Works Progress Administration, and the project was approved in 1936. Working out of a third-floor studio, Stahr created storybook style oil paintings on canvas over the next two years, which were cemented to Borough Hall's walls as he went along.
The thirteen murals depict
Verrazzano's discovery of Staten Island in 1524;
Henry Hudson
Henry Hudson ( 1565 – disappeared 23 June 1611) was an English sea explorer and navigator during the early 17th century, best known for his explorations of present-day Canada and parts of the northeastern United States.
In 1607 and 160 ...
's 1609 visit aboard the Dutch ship ''
Halve Maen
''Halve Maen'' (; en, Half Moon) was a Dutch East India Company '' vlieboot'' (similar to a carrack) that sailed into what is now New York Harbor in September 1609. She was commissioned by the VOC Chamber of Amsterdam in the Dutch Republic to ...
''; two panels showing stoic
Lenape
The Lenape (, , or Lenape , del, Lënapeyok) also called the Leni Lenape, Lenni Lenape and Delaware people, are an indigenous peoples of the Northeastern Woodlands, who live in the United States and Canada. Their historical territory includ ...
natives trading furs for trinkets;
French Huguenot
The Huguenots ( , also , ) were a religious group of French Protestants who held to the Reformed, or Calvinist, tradition of Protestantism. The term, which may be derived from the name of a Swiss political leader, the Genevan burgomaster Bez ...
farmers; British
Admiral Howe
Admiral of the Fleet Richard Howe, 1st Earl Howe, (8 March 1726 – 5 August 1799) was a British naval officer. After serving throughout the War of the Austrian Succession, he gained a reputation for his role in amphibious operations aga ...
taking charge of the island in 1776 and creating Fort Hill; the 1776 peace conference among Howe,
Benjamin Franklin
Benjamin Franklin ( April 17, 1790) was an American polymath who was active as a writer, scientist, inventor, statesman, diplomat, printer, publisher, and political philosopher. Encyclopædia Britannica, Wood, 2021 Among the leading inte ...
,
John Adams
John Adams (October 30, 1735 – July 4, 1826) was an American statesman, attorney, diplomat, writer, and Founding Fathers of the United States, Founding Father who served as the second president of the United States from 1797 to 1801. Befor ...
and
Edward Rutledge
Edward Rutledge (November 23, 1749 – January 23, 1800) was an American Founding Father and politician who signed the Continental Association and was the youngest signatory of the Declaration of Independence. He later served as the 39th gover ...
at the
Conference House
Conference House (also known as Billop House) is a stone house in Tottenville, Staten Island, New York City built by Captain Christopher Billopp some time before 1680. It is located in Conference House Park near Ward's Point, the southernmost t ...
in Tottenville; the so-called Battle of St. Andrew's; British ships departing during
Evacuation Day in 1783; the erection of
Fort Richmond
Fort Richmond is a provincial electoral division in the Canadian province of Manitoba. It was created by redistribution in 2008, out of parts of St. Norbert and Fort Garry.
As of electoral redistribution in 2018, which took effect the followi ...
and
Fort Tompkins in anticipation of the
War of 1812
The War of 1812 (18 June 1812 – 17 February 1815) was fought by the United States of America and its indigenous allies against the United Kingdom and its allies in British North America, with limited participation by Spain in Florida. It bega ...
; a stagecoach stopping at the Black Horse Tavern, which had been destroyed to accommodate road widening in 1934, three years prior to the 1937 painting; the
Hotel Castleton
A hotel is an establishment that provides paid lodging on a short-term basis. Facilities provided inside a hotel room may range from a modest-quality mattress in a small room to large suites with bigger, higher-quality beds, a dresser, a ref ...
, run by freed black men in the 19th century and destroyed by fire in 1907; the first
Clifton
Clifton may refer to:
People
*Clifton (surname)
*Clifton (given name)
Places
Australia
* Clifton, Queensland, a town
**Shire of Clifton
*Clifton, New South Wales, a suburb of Wollongong
*Clifton, Western Australia
Canada
*Clifton, Nova Scotia ...
to
Tottenville
Tottenville is a neighborhood on the South Shore of Staten Island, New York City. It is the southernmost settlement in both New York City and New York State. Tottenville is bounded on three sides by water: the south side abuts New York Bight w ...
railroad in 1860; and, finally, the
Bayonne Bridge
Bayonne Bridge is an arch bridge spanning the Kill Van Kull and connecting Bayonne, New Jersey with Staten Island in New York City. It carries New York State Route 440 (NY 440) and New Jersey Route 440. It is the sixth-longest ...
, showing a snappily-dressed
Othmar Ammann
Othmar Hermann Ammann (March 26, 1879 – September 22, 1965) was a Swiss-American civil engineer whose bridge designs include the George Washington Bridge, Verrazzano-Narrows Bridge, and Bayonne Bridge. He also directed the planning and constru ...
, the bridge's designer, watching its construction sometime between 1928 and 1931.
[Glenn Palmer-Smith, ''Murals of New York City''. New York: Rizzoli International Publications (2013), p. 131. ]
See also
*
List of New York City borough halls and municipal buildings
This is a list of New York City borough halls and municipal buildings used for civic agencies. Each of the borough halls serve as offices for their respective borough presidents and borough boards.
* New York City Hall
* Manhattan Municipal Bu ...
*
List of New York City Designated Landmarks in Staten Island
The New York City Landmarks Preservation Commission (LPC), formed in 1965, is the New York City governmental commission that administers the city's Landmarks Preservation Law. Since its founding, it has designated over a thousand landmarks, class ...
*
References
External links
*
{{National Register of Historic Places in New York, state=collapsed
Government buildings in Staten Island
Government of New York City
New York City Designated Landmarks in Staten Island
Beaux-Arts architecture in New York City
Government buildings completed in 1906
City and town halls on the National Register of Historic Places in New York (state)
Government buildings on the National Register of Historic Places in New York City
St. George, Staten Island
Carrère and Hastings buildings
1906 establishments in New York City