The Surrogate's Courthouse (also the Hall of Records and 31 Chambers Street) is a historic building at the northwest corner of Chambers and Centre Streets in the

Civic Center A civic center or civic centre is a prominent land area within a community that is constructed to be its focal point or center. It usually contains of one or more dominant public buildings, which may also include a government building. Recently, ...

Manhattan Manhattan ( ) is the most densely populated and geographically smallest of the Boroughs of New York City, five boroughs of New York City. Coextensive with New York County, Manhattan is the County statistics of the United States#Smallest, larg ...

New York City New York, often called New York City (NYC), is the most populous city in the United States, located at the southern tip of New York State on one of the world's largest natural harbors. The city comprises five boroughs, each coextensive w ...

, New York, U.S. Completed in 1907, it was designed in the Beaux Arts style.

John Rochester Thomas John Rochester Thomas (June 18, 1848 – August 28, 1901) was an American architect credited in his time with being the nation's most prolific designer of public and semi-public buildings. His work was characterized by originality, moderation a ...

created the original plans while Arthur J. Horgan and Vincent J. Slattery oversaw the building's completion. The building faces

City Hall Park City Hall Park is a public park surrounding New York City Hall in the Civic Center of Manhattan. It was the town commons of the nascent city of New York. History 17th century David Provoost came to New Netherland as early as 1638, probab ...

and the

Tweed Courthouse The Tweed Courthouse (also known as the Old New York County Courthouse) is a historic courthouse building at 52 Chambers Street (Manhattan), Chambers Street in the Civic Center, Manhattan, Civic Center of Manhattan in New York City, New Y ...

to the south, as well as the

Manhattan Municipal Building The David N. Dinkins Municipal Building (originally the Municipal Building and later known as the Manhattan Municipal Building) is a 40-story, building at 1 Centre Street (Manhattan), Centre Street, east of Chambers Street (Manhattan), Chambe ...

to the east. The Surrogate's Courthouse is a seven-story

steel-framed Steel frame is a building technique with a "skeleton frame" of vertical steel columns and horizontal I-beams, constructed in a rectangular grid to support the floors, roof and walls of a building which are all attached to the frame. The develop ...

structure with a

granite Granite ( ) is a coarse-grained (phanerite, phaneritic) intrusive rock, intrusive igneous rock composed mostly of quartz, alkali feldspar, and plagioclase. It forms from magma with a high content of silica and alkali metal oxides that slowly coo ...

facade and elaborate

marble Marble is a metamorphic rock consisting of carbonate minerals (most commonly calcite (CaCO3) or Dolomite (mineral), dolomite (CaMg(CO3)2) that have recrystallized under the influence of heat and pressure. It has a crystalline texture, and is ty ...

interiors. The architects used a fireproof frame so the structure could safely accommodate the city's paper records. The exterior is decorated with 54 sculptures by

Philip Martiny Philip H. Martiny (May 19, 1858 – June 26, 1927) was a French-American sculptor who worked in the Paris atelier of Eugene Dock, where he became foreman before emigrating to New York in 1878—to avoid conscription in the French army, he later ...

and

Henry Kirke Bush-Brown Henry Kirke Bush-Brown (April 21, 1857 in Ogdensburg, New YorkBUSH-BROWN, Henry Ki ...

, as well as three-story

colonnade In classical architecture, a colonnade is a long sequence of columns joined by their entablature, often free-standing, or part of a building. Paired or multiple pairs of columns are normally employed in a colonnade which can be straight or curv ...

s with Corinthian columns along Chambers and Reade Streets. The basement houses the New York City Municipal Archives. The fifth floor contains the

New York Surrogate's Court The Surrogate's Court of the State of New York handles all probate and estate proceedings in the New York (state), New York State judiciary of New York, Unified Court System. All wills are probated in this court and all estates of people who die ...

for

New York County Manhattan ( ) is the most densely populated and geographically smallest of the five boroughs of New York City. Coextensive with New York County, Manhattan is the smallest county by area in the U.S. state of New York. Located almost entire ...

, which handles

probate In common law jurisdictions, probate is the judicial process whereby a will is "proved" in a court of law and accepted as a valid public document that is the true last testament of the deceased; or whereby, in the absence of a legal will, the e ...

and estate proceedings for the New York State

Unified Court System The Judiciary of New York (officially the New York State Unified Court System) is the judicial branch of the Government of New York, comprising all the courts of the State of New York (excluding extrajudicial administrative courts). The Court ...

. The Hall of Records building had been planned since the late 19th century to replace an outdated building in

; plans for the current building were approved in 1897. Construction took place between 1899 and 1907, having been subject to several delays because of controversies over funding, sculptures, and Horgan and Slattery's involvement after Thomas's death in 1901. Renamed the Surrogate's Courthouse in 1962, the building has undergone few alterations over the years. The Surrogate's Courthouse is listed on the

National Register of Historic Places The National Register of Historic Places (NRHP) is the Federal government of the United States, United States federal government's official United States National Register of Historic Places listings, list of sites, buildings, structures, Hist ...

as a

National Historic Landmark A National Historic Landmark (NHL) is a National Register of Historic Places property types, building, district, object, site, or structure that is officially recognized by the Federal government of the United States, United States government f ...

, and its facade and interior are both

New York City designated 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 c ...

Site

The Surrogate's Courthouse is in the

neighborhood of

, New York, U.S., just north of

. It occupies an entire

city block A city block, residential block, urban block, or simply block is a central element of urban planning and urban design. In a city with a grid system, the block is the smallest group of buildings that is surrounded by streets. City blocks are th ...

bounded by

Chambers Street Chambers Street may refer to: Streets * Chambers Street, Edinburgh, Scotland * Chambers Street (Manhattan), New York City, U.S. * Chamber Street, once known as Chambers Street, London Borough of Tower Hamlets, England New York City Subway station ...

to the south, Centre Street to the east, Reade Street to the north, and Elk Street to the west. The site measures about . Other nearby buildings and locations include 49 Chambers and 280 Broadway to the west; the

Ted Weiss Federal Building The Ted Weiss Federal Building, also known as the Foley Square Federal Building, is a 34-story United States federal building at 290 Broadway in the Civic Center neighborhood of Lower Manhattan in New York City. Opened in 1994, the building ...

and

African Burial Ground National Monument African Burial Ground National Monument is a monument at Duane Street and African Burial Ground Way (Elk Street) in the Civic Center section of Lower Manhattan, New York City. Its main building is the Ted Weiss Federal Building at 290 Broadway ...

to the northwest; the

Thurgood Marshall United States Courthouse The Thurgood Marshall United States Courthouse (originally the United States Courthouse or the Foley Square Courthouse) is a 37-story courthouse at 40 Centre Street (Manhattan), Centre Street on Foley Square in the Civic Center, Manhattan, Civi ...

to the northeast; the

to the east; and the

and

New York City Hall New York City Hall is the Government of New York City, seat of New York City government, located at the center of City Hall Park in the Civic Center, Manhattan, Civic Center area of Lower Manhattan, between Broadway (Manhattan), Broadway, Park R ...

to the southwest, within City Hall Park. The ground slopes downward from south to north; the original ground elevation was below Reade Street and close to sea level. The surrounding area contains evidence of the interments of individuals, mostly of African descent, but the foundations of the Surrogate's Courthouse may have destroyed any remnants of corpses on the site. In the 18th and early 19th centuries, the Surrogate's Courthouse site was on a hill called "Pot Baker's" or "Potter's Hill", so named because several families in the pottery industry lived or worked nearby. The site also included a water reservoir built of stone and maintained by the

Manhattan Company The Manhattan Company was a New York bank and holding company established on September 1, 1799. The company merged with Chase National Bank in 1955 to form the Chase Manhattan Bank. It is the oldest of the predecessor institutions that eventuall ...

from 1799 until 1842, when the

Croton Aqueduct The Croton Aqueduct or Old Croton Aqueduct was a large and complex water supply network, water distribution system constructed for New York City between 1837 and 1842. The great aqueduct (water supply), aqueducts, which were among the first in t ...

opened. In the mid-19th century, the site contained small loft buildings. Before the completion of Elk Street in 1901, the site was part of a larger city block bounded by Broadway and Chambers, Centre, and Reade Streets.

Architecture

The Surrogate's Courthouse was designed in the Beaux-Arts style,

being the original architect. After Thomas's death in 1901, Arthur J. Horgan and Vincent J. Slattery oversaw the completion of the plan. Their relatively unknown firm had connections to the politically powerful

Tammany Hall Tammany Hall, also known as the Society of St. Tammany, the Sons of St. Tammany, or the Columbian Order, was an American political organization founded in 1786 and incorporated on May 12, 1789, as the Tammany Society. It became the main local ...

organization of the time. The final design largely conforms to Thomas's original plans, though Horgan and Slattery were mostly responsible for the sculptural ornamentation.

Fay Kellogg Fay Kellogg (May 13, 1871 – July 10, 1918) was described as "the foremost woman architect in the United States" in the early years of the 20th century. She specialized in steel construction. The building has undergone relatively few alterations since its completion in 1907. The Surrogate's Courthouse's seven-story granite facade wraps around the building's structural frame, while the interiors are elaborately designed in marble. The building was designed to be fireproof to house the city's paper records safely. The interior spaces are popular with film and television production companies and have been used in many commercials, TV series, and movies. Besides housing the Surrogate's Court for

, the building contains the New York City Municipal Archives, the

New York City Department of Records and Information Services The New York City Department of Records and Information Services (DoRIS) is the department of the government of New York City that organizes and stores records and information from the City Hall Library and Municipal Archives. It is headquartered ...

(DORIS)'s City Hall Library, and the

New York City Department of Cultural Affairs The New York City Department of Cultural Affairs (DCLA) is the department of the government of New York City dedicated to supporting New York City's cultural life. Among its primary missions is ensuring adequate public funding for non-profit cultu ...

Facade

The facade of the Surrogate's Courthouse consists mostly of granite from

Hallowell, Maine Hallowell ( ) is a city in Kennebec County, Maine, United States. The population was 2,570 at the 2020 United States census, 2020 census. Popular with tourists, Hallowell is noted for its culture and old architecture. Hallowell is included in th ...

, with

ashlar Ashlar () is a cut and dressed rock (geology), stone, worked using a chisel to achieve a specific form, typically rectangular in shape. The term can also refer to a structure built from such stones. Ashlar is the finest stone masonry unit, a ...

masonry. It is split vertically into a two-story rusticated base, a three-story midsection, a sixth story and a seventh story in a

mansard roof A mansard or mansard roof (also called French roof or curb roof) is a multi-sided gambrel-style hip roof characterised by two slopes on each of its sides, with the lower slope at a steeper angle than the upper, and often punctured by dormer wi ...

. The northern and southern

elevations The elevation of a geographic ''location'' is its height above or below a fixed reference point, most commonly a reference geoid, a mathematical model of the Earth's sea level as an equipotential gravitational surface (see Geodetic datum § ...

are split vertically into five

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, ci ...

, with multiple windows on each floor in the center bays, while the western and eastern elevations are split into three bays. Thirty-two granite pillars, each weighing between , are placed along the facade. The eight pillars on Chambers Street are full

column A column or pillar in architecture and structural engineering is a structural element that transmits, through compression, the weight of the structure above to other structural elements below. In other words, a column is a compression member ...

s, while the other pillars are half-columns whose rear sections have been cut away. The largest columns' pedestals measure thick and weigh an estimated . The

capitals Capital and its variations may refer to: Common uses * Capital city, a municipality of primary status ** Capital region, a metropolitan region containing the capital ** List of national capitals * Capital letter, an upper-case letter Econom ...

measure thick and weigh an estimated . The central portion of the southern (Chambers Street) elevation contains three double-height arched doorways, each of which contains a pair of doors and a window with bronze grilles.; The doorways are flanked by granite columns, each cast from a single granite slab and topped by modified composite

. This entrance was wainscoted entirely with Siena marble at the building's completion. There are side entrances at the center of the western elevation on Elk Street, from which there is a small flight of steps, as well as at the center of the eastern elevation on Centre Street.; The Reade Street elevation contains a wheelchair-accessible entrance. An areaway, measuring wide, surrounds the building. On the northern and southern elevations, the central five windows of the third through fifth stories are flanked by a projecting Corinthian style

with four single columns between two paired columns at either end. On all four elevations, the outermost bays are designed with window openings on the second, third, fifth, and sixth stories, and sculptures around porthole windows on the fourth story. The remaining six windows on the north and south, and the center nine windows on the west and east, are slightly recessed behind the end bays, with different window designs on each story. An

entablature An entablature (; nativization of Italian , from "in" and "table") is the superstructure of moldings and bands which lies horizontally above columns, resting on their capitals. Entablatures are major elements of classical architecture, and ...

and a

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

runs above the fifth story, and another cornice runs above the sixth story. The seventh story contains

dormer A dormer is a roofed structure, often containing a window, that projects vertically beyond the plane of a Roof pitch, pitched roof. A dormer window (also called ''dormer'') is a form of roof window. Dormers are commonly used to increase the ...

windows with carved hoods, projecting from the mansard roof in all except the end bays.

Sculptures

The exterior features fifty-four

sculptures Sculpture is the branch of the visual arts that operates in three dimensions. Sculpture is the three-dimensional art work which is physically presented in the dimensions of height, width and depth. It is one of the plastic arts. Durable sc ...

and

Henry Kirke Bush-Brown Henry Kirke Bush-Brown (April 21, 1857 in Ogdensburg, New YorkBUSH-BROWN, Henry Ki ...

. Martiny was hired for the main sculptural groups, while Bush-Brown designed the smaller sculptures. Like the rest of the facade, the statues were carved from Hallowell granite. The tops of the figures are nearly above the sidewalk. On Chambers and Centre Streets, Martiny carved 24 standing figures at the sixth floor, under the cornice. These sculptures depict eminent figures from the city's past, including

Peter Stuyvesant Peter Stuyvesant ( – August 1672)Mooney, James E. "Stuyvesant, Peter" in p.1256 was a Dutch colonial administrator who served as the Directors of New Netherland, director-general of New Netherland from 1647 to 1664, when the colony was pro ...

DeWitt Clinton DeWitt Clinton (March 2, 1769February 11, 1828) was an American politician and Naturalism (philosophy), naturalist. He served as a United States Senate, United States senator, as the mayor of New York City, and as the sixth governor of New York. ...

David Pietersen De Vries David Pieterszoon de Vries ( – 13 September 1655) was a Dutch navigator from the city of Hoorn.Joris van der MeeKoopman in de West; De indianen en de Nieuw Nederlanders in het journaal van David Pietersz. De Vries, 2001 (Dutch) Biography ...

, and mayors

Caleb Heathcote Caleb Heathcote (March 6, 1665 – February 28, 1721) served as the 31st Mayor In many countries, a mayor is the highest-ranking official in a Municipal corporation, municipal government such as that of a city or a town. Worldwide, there is ...

Abram Stevens Hewitt Abram Stevens Hewitt (July 31, 1822January 18, 1903) was an American politician, educator, ironmaking industrialist, and lawyer who was mayor of New York City for two years from 1887 to 1888. He also twice served as a U.S. Congressman from an ...

Philip Hone Philip Hone (October 25, 1780 – May 5, 1851) was Mayor of New York City from 1826 to 1827.Minutes of the Common Council of the City of New York, 1784-1831. Volume XV, November 10, 1825 to December 25, 1826'. New York: City of New York, 1917. p. ...

Cadwallader David Colden Cadwallader David Colden (April 4, 1769 – February 7, 1834) was an American politician who served as the 54th Mayor of New York City and a U.S. Representative from New York. Early life Colden was born at Spring Hill in Flushing, the family ...

and

James Duane James Duane (February 6, 1733 – February 1, 1797) was an American Founding Fathers of the United States, Founding Father, attorney, jurist, and American Revolutionary War, American Revolutionary leader from New York (state), New York. He serve ...

. Martiny also designed the groups of sculptures flanking the Chambers and Centre Street entrances. Three sculptures flank the Chambers Street entrance, while two originally flanked the Centre Street entrance. The Centre Street sculptures, depicting ''Justice'' and ''Authority'', were removed in 1959; they were relocated to the

New York County Courthouse The New York State Supreme Court Building (also the New York County Courthouse) is located at 60 Centre Street on Foley Square in the Civic Center neighborhood of Manhattan in New York City. It houses the Civil and Appellate Terms of the Ne ...

. On all four sides, Bush-Brown designed groups of allegorical figures for the roof. The figures were arranged in standing, sitting, or reclining postures. Figures depicting ''Heritage'' and ''Maternity'' are at the base of the central dormer on Chambers Street. Above the central Chambers Street dormer is a clock with a dial measuring across, flanked by figures of ''Poetry'' and ''Philosophy'' and topped by four cherubs and two caryatids. A similar dormer at the center of Reade Street has figures depicting ''Instruction'', ''Study'', ''Law'', and ''History''. The central Centre Street dormer has figures of ''Inscription'' and ''Custody'' and the central dormer on the west side has ''Industry'' and ''Commerce''.

Interior

Entrance vestibules

The rectangular entrance vestibule from Chambers Street contains rusticated yellow marble-clad walls. Just opposite the arched entryways is an arcade with decorative

cartouches file:Birth and Throne cartouches of pharaoh Seti I, from KV17 at the Valley of the Kings, Egypt. Neues Museum.jpg, upalt=A stone face carved with coloured hieroglyphics. Two cartouches - ovoid shapes with hieroglyphics inside - are visible at the ...

. Double doors made of mahogany are set within marble doorways at either end of the vestibule. The German sculptor

Albert Weinert Albert Weinert (June 13, 1863 – November 29, 1947) was a German-American sculptor. Born in Leipzig, Kingdom of Saxony, Weinert attended the Royal Academy of Art and Applied Art there and then the Académie Royale des Beaux-Arts in Brussels, ...

created two marble sculptural groups, one above each set of doorways; these depict the 1624 purchase of Manhattan Island and the 1898 creation of the

City of Greater New York The City of Greater New York was the Merger (politics), consolidation of the New York City, City of New York with Brooklyn, western Queens County, and Staten Island, which took effect on January 1, 1898. New York had already annexed the Bronx ...

. The vestibule's elliptical ceiling contains mosaic murals and panels created by William de Leftwich Dodge.; Of the four mosaic murals, three depict the

process (in reference to the Surrogates' Court) and the other depicts the continuity of records. The ceiling's triangular mosaic panels depict Egyptian and Greek motifs along with

zodiac signs In Western astrology, astrological signs are the twelve 30-degree sectors that make up Earth's 360-degree orbit around the Sun. The signs enumerate from the first day of spring, known as the First Point of Aries, which is the vernal equinox. T ...

. The mosaic tiles are mostly colored red, green, and blue on dull gold. The vestibule also contains a bronze chandelier, ornamental bronze radiators and a patterned marble floor. Smaller entrance vestibules also exist on the west and east ends of the Surrogate's Courthouse; they are largely similar, except for the steps outside the west vestibule. Decorative bronze-and-glass enclosures frame the doorways, while there are mosaic

lunettes A lunette (French ''lunette'', 'little moon') is a crescent- or half-moon–shaped or semi-circular architectural space or feature, variously filled with sculpture, painted, glazed, filled with recessed masonry, or void. A lunette may also be ...

over the two side doors from the vestibules. In the elliptical ceiling vaults of these vestibules, Dodge also designed mosaics set in glass. The mosaics are generally blue and gold but have green and rose accent strips. The ceiling is divided into several panels with decorative elements like garlands, urns, and

acanthus Acanthus (: acanthus, rarely acanthuses in English, or acanthi in Latin), its feminine form acantha (plural: acanthae), the Latinised form of the ancient Greek word acanthos or akanthos, or the prefix acantho-, may refer to: Biology *Acanthus ...

scrolls.;

Lobby and lower stories

The entrance vestibules lead to the main lobby, a triple-story space whose design was inspired by that of the

Palais Garnier The (, Garnier Palace), also known as (, Garnier Opera), is a historic 1,979-seatBeauvert 1996, p. 102. opera house at the Place de l'Opéra in the 9th arrondissement of Paris, France. It was built for the Paris Opera from 1861 to 1875 at the ...

, the opera house of the

Paris Opera The Paris Opera ( ) is the primary opera and ballet company of France. It was founded in 1669 by Louis XIV as the , and shortly thereafter was placed under the leadership of Jean-Baptiste Lully and officially renamed the , but continued to be kn ...

.; Yellow Sienna marble was used throughout the lobby. Surrounding the lobby space on the first floor is an arched gallery with rusticated piers, scrolled

keystones A keystone (or capstone) is the wedge-shaped stone at the apex of a masonry arch or typically round-shaped one at the apex of a vault. In both cases it is the final piece placed during construction and locks all the stones into position, allo ...

, red marble

roundels A roundel is a circular disc used as a symbol. The term is used in heraldry, but also commonly used to refer to a type of national insignia used on military aircraft, generally circular in shape and usually comprising concentric rings of differ ...

, and

garland A garland is a decorative braid, knot or wreath of flowers, leaves, or other material. Garlands can be worn on the head or around the neck, hung on an inanimate object, or laid in a place of cultural or religious importance. In contemporary times ...

s linking the roundels and keystones. A decorative frieze runs above the first floor gallery. A marble double staircase with balustrade flanks the western entrance archway on the first floor, ascending two flights to an intermediate landing, where a single flight leads to the second floor. On the second floor is a colonnaded gallery containing engaged columns with Ionic-style capitals. The tops of the lobby walls contain decorative entablatures. The ceiling has a bronze elliptical arched vault reaching the height of the third floor. Within the arched vault is a

gable A gable is the generally triangular portion of a wall between the edges of intersecting roof pitches. The shape of the gable and how it is detailed depends on the structural system used, which reflects climate, material availability, and aesth ...

-shaped skylight measuring . The hallways on the first floor contain marble walls and multicolored patterned marble floors. The passageways contain

groin vault A groin vault or groined vault (also sometimes known as a double barrel vault or cross vault) is produced by the intersection at right angles of two barrel vaults. Honour, H. and J. Fleming, (2009) ''A World History of Art''. 7th edn. London: La ...

ed ceilings with chandeliers. There are recessed mahogany double-doors leading to the offices, as well as red marble roundels above each doorway. Service functions, such as fuse boxes, are contained within bronze boxes.; The second-floor gallery's arches divide the gallery into bays. Within each bay, there are shallow, domed ceilings supported on decorative

pendentives In architecture, a pendentive is a constructional device permitting the placing of a circular dome over a square room or of an elliptical dome over a rectangular room. The pendentives, which are triangular segments of a sphere, taper to point ...

, and a cornice runs beneath each dome. On the walls, there are arched openings with mahogany double doors. Above the double staircase in the lobby, a balustraded staircase rises from the second-floor gallery to the third floor, with an intermediate landing above the double stairway.

Upper stories

The third through fifth floors are largely similar in plan and surround an interior light court above the lobby. These floors are connected by a staircase similar in design to the one connecting the second and third floors. The floor surfaces of the third through fifth stories are made of mosaic tile, and the walls consist of gray-veined marble panels. Each story contains different decorative designs on the frames surrounding the doorways and on the openings facing the light court. The two Surrogates' courtrooms, on the fifth floor, handle probate and estate proceedings for the New York State

. Part of the original design, the rooms contain similar layouts with minor differences in decorative detail.; The courtrooms have gilded, paneled plaster ceilings with decorative reliefs and ornate chandeliers. The north courtroom is finished in Santo Domingo

mahogany Mahogany is a straight- grained, reddish-brown timber of three tropical hardwood species of the genus ''Swietenia'', indigenous to the AmericasBridgewater, Samuel (2012). ''A Natural History of Belize: Inside the Maya Forest''. Austin: Universit ...

and has four carved panels signifying wisdom, truth, civilization and degradation, as well as six repeating motifs and several portraits of surrogates. The south courtroom is finished in English oak, with French Renaissance style decorative elements. Overlooking each courtroom is a marble balcony, reached by staircases in the respective courtrooms. There are also ornately carved fireplaces, which contain marble mantelpieces lined with bronze surrounds made by Tiffany & Co. The seventh floor and the attic housed the city's records on steel shelves until 2017.

Basement

The building is surrounded by foundation walls measuring deep. The vaults of the building's basement extend underneath both Chambers and Reade Streets, descending under Chambers Street and under Reade Street. The Surrogate's Courthouse had been designed with a small power plant in the basement, which provided power to the building and served neighboring municipally owned buildings. When the building was completed, its basement had four record rooms. By the 21st century, the basement contained the municipal government's City Hall Library as well as the Municipal Archives. The library consists of two publicly accessible reading rooms, as well as several storerooms beneath the main basement for the Municipal Archives. The collection contains over 400,000 publications, including 66,000 books and 285,000 newspapers, journals, magazines, and periodical clippings. The material in the collection totals over . The basement also included more than 720,000 photographs on rolls of

nitrate film Nitrocellulose (also known as cellulose nitrate, flash paper, flash cotton, guncotton, pyroxylin and flash string, depending on form) is a highly flammable compound formed by nitration, nitrating cellulose through exposure to a mixture of nitri ...

, which were stored in freezers, in addition to some

New York Supreme Court The Supreme Court of the State of New York is the superior court in the Judiciary of New York. It is vested with unlimited civil and criminal jurisdiction, although in many counties outside New York City it acts primarily as a court of civil ju ...

records.

History

Background

In 1831, the original Hall of Records opened northeast of City Hall on the site of the "New Gaol", the old city jail, in present-day City Hall Park.; The New Gaol building dated from the late 1750s. The ''

New-York Mirror The ''New-York Mirror'' was a weekly newspaper published in New York City from ''1823 to 1842''. Founded by George Pope Morris and Samuel Woodworth, it was a prominent publication that focused on literature, the fine arts, and local news. It pla ...

'' described the original building as a Grecian-style structure with marble-columned

porticoes A portico is a porch leading to the entrance of a building, or extended as a colonnade, with a roof structure over a walkway, supported by columns or enclosed by walls. This idea was widely used in ancient Greece and has influenced many cultu ...

on each side, as well as stucco walls, a copper roof, and masonry floors. In 1870, the original building was expanded by one story and a "fireproof" roof was erected. The first Hall of Records became dilapidated over time and, as early as 1872, lawyers had objected to the rundown condition of the building. Despite its fireproof appearance, the first Hall of Records used wood extensively in its floors and roof. By the late 19th century, the structure housed records pertaining to properties worth a total of $4 billion. An 1889 ''

New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''NYT'') is an American daily newspaper based in New York City. ''The New York Times'' covers domestic, national, and international news, and publishes opinion pieces, investigative reports, and reviews. As one of ...

'' article described the old building as having nearly 7,000 volumes, which were "constantly threatened by destruction". The first Hall of Records was razed in 1903, and an entrance to the

New York City Subway The New York City Subway is a rapid transit system in New York City serving the New York City boroughs, boroughs of Manhattan, Brooklyn, Queens, and the Bronx. It is owned by the government of New York City and leased to the New York City Tr ...

's Brooklyn Bridge–City Hall/Chambers Street station was built there.The

New York City Bar Association The Association of the Bar of the City of New York, commonly referred to as the New York City Bar Association (City Bar), founded in 1870, is a voluntary association of lawyers and law students. Since 1896, the organization has been headquartere ...

had advocated the construction of a new Hall of Records as early as 1889. A grand jury reported in March 1896 that the old Hall of Records was "unsafe and susceptible to destruction by fire".; The

New York City Department of Health The New York City Department of Health and Mental Hygiene (also known as NYC Health) is the department of the government of New York City responsible for public health along with issuing birth certificates, dog licenses, and conducting restaur ...

reportedly "repeatedly condemned" conditions in the old building. In a November 1896 meeting of the

New York City Board of Estimate The New York City Board of Estimate was a governmental body in New York City responsible for numerous areas of municipal policy and decisions, including the city budget, land-use, contracts, franchises, and water rates. Under the amendments eff ...

, Ashbel P. Fitch, the

New York City Comptroller The Office of Comptroller of New York City, a position established in 1801, is the chief financial officer and chief auditor of the city agencies and their performance and spending. The comptroller also reviews all city contracts, handles the s ...

, offered a resolution to create a committee to select a site for a new Hall of Records building. A coalition of lawyers, businesspeople, real estate developers, and property owners formed the next month to advocate for a new building. At the time, the city government preferred that new municipal buildings be erected in the area immediately outside City Hall Park, instead of inside the park, as the old Hall of Records had been.

Development

The state legislature authorized a new Hall of Records building in early 1897, and the Board of Estimate recommended a site on the west side of Centre Street, between Reade and Chambers Streets. The site was approved in April 1897 despite the objection of Fitch, who believed that a site immediately to the north would be cheaper. The site approval included an extension of Elm (now Elk) Street southward from Reade to Chambers Street. The Elm Street extension, forming the site's western boundary, was completed in 1901. The site was valued at $1.3 million at the time of its approval (about $ million in ).

Design and land acquisition

Initially, the city government had contemplated hosting a new

architectural design competition An architectural competition is a type of design competition, in which an entity that intends to build new work, or is just seeking ideas, invites architects to submit design proposals. The winning scheme is usually chosen by an independent panel ...

for the new Hall of Records, but advocates of the new building's construction worried that the competition would introduce unnecessary delays. Instead, they suggested that the city hire John R. Thomas, who had won the second of four architectural design competitions for the Manhattan Municipal Building (held between 1892 and 1894). From the 134 plans submitted, six finalist designs were chosen in 1894. In February 1896, the Municipal Building Commission of New York City awarded Thomas the first prize in the design competition, which included his employment as the architect of the municipal building. The municipal building for which Thomas had prepared plans had been canceled in 1894. Despite the municipal building's cancellation, the city paid Thomas $7,000 for his plans. Thomas was selected as the Hall of Records' architect upon the urging of then-mayor

William Lafayette Strong William Lafayette Strong (March 22, 1827 – November 2, 1900) was the 90th Mayor of New York City from 1895 to 1897. He was the last mayor of New York City before the consolidation of the City of Greater New York on January 1, 1898. Early life ...

. Strong, who had been elected on a platform of political

reform Reform refers to the improvement or amendment of what is wrong, corrupt, unsatisfactory, etc. The modern usage of the word emerged in the late 18th century and is believed to have originated from Christopher Wyvill's Association movement, which ...

in 1895, said the city government could save money by adopting Thomas's existing plans. According to architecture critic

Montgomery Schuyler Montgomery Schuyler AIA, (August 19, 1843, Ithaca, New York – July 16, 1914, New Rochelle, New York) was a highly influential critic, journalist and editorial writer in New York City who wrote about and influenced art, literature, music ...

, Strong had reminded the Board of Estimate that Thomas "deserved some consolation for a failure that had occurred by no fault of his own". Additionally, Thomas had previously revised a plan for the Elmira State Reformatory to save the New York state government $1 million on that project, and Strong appreciated Thomas's intentions to reduce costs. Thomas presented his plans to the Board of Estimate in May 1897, and the board referred the plans to a committee composed of Schuyler, architect

William Robert Ware William Robert Ware (May 27, 1832 – June 9, 1915), born in Cambridge, Massachusetts into a family of the Unitarian clergy, was an American architect, author, and founder of two important American architectural schools. He received his o ...

and philanthropist

Henry Gurdon Marquand Henry Gurdon Marquand (April 11, 1819 – February 26, 1902) was an American financier, philanthropist and art collector known for his extensive collection. Early life Marquand was born in New York City on April 11, 1819, not long after the dea ...

. The Board of Estimate approved them and authorized bids for the building's construction in November 1897. The

American Institute of Architects The American Institute of Architects (AIA) is a professional organization for architects in the United States. It is headquartered in Washington, D.C. AIA offers education, government advocacy, community redevelopment, and public outreach progr ...

opposed Thomas's hiring, insisting that a design competition should have been hosted instead, but Thomas remained as the building's architect. Difficulties in acquiring the plots for the building's site delayed the start of work. Some of the old buildings on the site were sold in early 1898. Other property owners resisted the seizure of their property through

eminent domain Eminent domain, also known as land acquisition, compulsory purchase, resumption, resumption/compulsory acquisition, or expropriation, is the compulsory acquisition of private property for public use. It does not include the power to take and t ...

. The resistance of one landowner (the Wendel family, which owned a myriad of Manhattan properties and had a policy to "never sell anything") required the state legislature to pass a special act to obtain the small portion of the site owned by the Wendels. Lessees also objected to the fact that they would not be compensated for the unexpired terms of their leases.

Start of construction

Thirteen companies submitted bids for granite in December 1897. John Peirce won the contract to supply white Hallowell granite;; his bid had been the highest, at $1.997 million, but the city hired him anyway because of his reputation as a granite supplier. Henry Clay Mandeville was the construction superintendent. Work on the foundations began in early 1899, but was halted after about ninety days. The main reason was a lack of funding; several bond authorizations for the building had been delayed. Peirce filed a lawsuit in July 1899 to receive payment for the granite he had supplied, and the State Supreme Court issued a

mandamus A writ of (; ) is a judicial remedy in the English and American common law system consisting of a court order that commands a government official or entity to perform an act it is legally required to perform as part of its official duties, o ...

to authorize a bond issue to pay Pierce. The City Council passed a bill to that effect on August 3. The City Council adopted a resolution in a contentious vote the following week authorizing the issuance of $2.1 million in bonds (about $ million in ) for the building's construction; the City Council president

Randolph Guggenheimer Randolph Guggenheimer (November 4, 1907 – July 1, 1999) was a lawyer and philanthropist. Guggenheimer advocated for improved medical services for residents of Harlem from poor areas. In 1979, he and management consultant Eugene McCabe co-founde ...

was called to cast the deciding vote. Guggenheimer said the bonds could be placed for sale. Construction resumed in September 1899; the construction contract stipulated that the building's walls and roof be finished within 550 workdays. The city issued $450,000 in bonds in January 1900 and issued the remaining $1.6 million in bonds that December. Meanwhile, the

-affiliated

Robert Anderson Van Wyck Robert Anderson Van Wyck ( ;Paumgarten, Nick"The Van Wyck Question" ''The New Yorker'', June 11, 2001. Accessed May 10, 2023. July 20, 1849 – November 14, 1918) was the first mayor of New York City after the consolidation of the five ...

had won the 1897 mayoral election, taking office the next year. Soon after his inauguration, Van Wyck accused the Strong administration of "extravagance" in its design. Van Wyck wanted to appoint Horgan and Slattery, who were friendly with the Tammany political machine, as the project's architects. Initially, he wanted to add five stories to the building, which were to be used as municipal offices. He canceled these plans after he was informed not only that the existing eight-story Hall of Records would be equivalent to an eleven-story building, but also that a thirteen-story building would be extremely difficult to defend in a fire. There were several other unsuccessful schemes for the site, including proposals for the municipal building and a new county courthouse. Thomas called the alternate plans impractical, saying that the foundations could not support additional stories. Van Wyck also appointed Horgan and Slattery in 1899 to conduct a report on possible ways to reduce the cost of the interior furnishings. The original interior cost was to be $2.5 million (about $ million in ). Following Horgan and Slattery's recommendations, the interior appropriation was reduced by $1 million (about $ million in ). In determining the revised appropriation, Horgan and Slattery had suggested that the interior surfaces be made of cement rather than marble. Thomas unsuccessfully sought to have the appropriation restored, saying that the building's design would be "spoiled" if he did not have at least $2.25 million. When Van Wyck threatened to fire Thomas, the architect agreed to reduce the cost of the interior to $1.9 million. The Board of Estimate requested bids for interior decoration in June 1900. The board rejected all the bids, saying the comptroller's office had received anonymous complaints that Thomas had shown favoritism to certain contractors. Once the bids were rejected, the complaints were withdrawn without further explanation. Peirce ultimately received the interior contract in 1901.

Change of architect and completion

Guggenheimer laid the building's

cornerstone A cornerstone (or foundation stone or setting stone) is the first stone set in the construction of a masonry Foundation (engineering), foundation. All other stones will be set in reference to this stone, thus determining the position of the entir ...

at a ceremony on April 13, 1901. Work had progressed slightly when Thomas died in August 1901. Under pressure from Van Wyck, the Board of Estimate appointed Horgan and Slattery as the new architects two weeks later, prompting the Thomas estate to sue for damages. ''

The New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''NYT'') is an American daily newspaper based in New York City. ''The New York Times'' covers domestic, national, and international news, and publishes opinion pieces, investigative reports, and reviews. As one of ...

'' criticized the change in plans as a "Horganizing and Slatterifying" of Thomas's original design. Comptroller

Bird S. Coler Bird Sim Coler (October 9, 1867 Urbana, Illinois – June 12, 1941 Brooklyn, New York) was an American stockbroker and politician from Brooklyn, New York (state), New York. He served as the first New York City Comptroller after the city's City of ...

protested against Horgan and Slattery's appointment, and Fitch refused to give Thomas's plans to Horgan and Slattery. The firm could not collect fees unless they had the plans. After

Seth Low Seth Low (January 18, 1850 – September 17, 1916) was an American educator and political figure who served as the mayor of Brooklyn from 1881 to 1885, the president of Columbia University from 1890 to 1901, a diplomatic representative of ...

won the

1901 New York City mayoral election An election for Mayor of New York City was held in November 1901. Incumbent mayor Robert A. Van Wyck was not a candidate for re-election to a second term in office. Former mayor of Brooklyn Seth Low, running on a reformist platform, defeated by ...

, he reversed some of the changes made to Thomas's plan. Low also unsuccessfully tried to have Horgan and Slattery removed as the architects. Pierce began installing some of the facade's smaller pillars in March 1902, and the first of the eight large columns on Chambers Street was installed the next month. The columns were so heavy that two

derrick A derrick is a lifting device composed at minimum of one guyed mast, as in a gin pole, which may be articulated over a load by adjusting its Guy-wire, guys. Most derricks have at least two components, either a guyed mast or self-supporting tower ...

s had to be used to lift each column. By that October, the city had decided to demolish the old Hall of Records. At the end of the year, records were moved to a temporary site in the Morton Building on Nassau Street.; Early in 1903, the Board of Estimate moved to approve Thomas's original plans for the interior of the new building. Horgan and Slattery unilaterally hired Philip Martiny to design the building's sculptures that year, and Henry Kirke Bush-Brown was hired to design additional sculptures. Critics said the two sculptors could not commission the sculptures to the desired specifications in a short enough time period, while the city's Municipal Art Commission objected that Horgan and Slattery did not present them with general plans for the sculptures and decorative marble. The few samples that Horgan and Slattery did submit to the Municipal Art Commission were minor architectural details such as pedestals. The city's Fine Arts Association submitted proposals in March 1903 to decorate the interiors with murals. Low upheld Martiny's and Bush-Brown's contracts in June, which ''The New York Times'' estimated to be worth $75,000, but deferred the completion of the interior murals. The statues were delivered during the middle of that year, though one of the statues fell off and cracked in 1905. As late as 1904, there were plans to convert the nearly complete building into one wing of a new county courthouse. Three city departments were scheduled to move into the new Hall of Records building in May 1904, when their existing leases expired, but the building was not complete at the time. Further delays were announced in May 1905, including the plan for Horgan and Slattery to remodel the not-yet-complete interior for $500,000. The Board of Estimate received four bids for the interior outfitting in June 1905, of which the lowest bid was $1.33 million, but the city's borough presidents initially refused to provide additional money for the interiors. City controller

Edward M. Grout Edward Marshall Grout (October 27, 1861 – November 9, 1931) was an American lawyer and politician from New York. He served as first Borough President of Brooklyn, and later as New York City Comptroller. Life Grout was born on October 27, 186 ...

requested that the Board of Estimate grant the appropriation; at the time, the total construction cost was estimated at $7.84 million. A ''

New-York Tribune The ''New-York Tribune'' (from 1914: ''New York Tribune'') was an American newspaper founded in 1841 by editor Horace Greeley. It bore the moniker ''New-York Daily Tribune'' from 1842 to 1866 before returning to its original name. From the 1840s ...

'' report that November claimed that, had the building been erected by private interests, it would have opened in 1903 and cost $2 million less. The Board of Estimate launched an inquiry into the delays in 1906, and the building's elevators were tested that March. The Municipal Art Commission, which was still reluctant to approve the sculptures, finally consented in September 1906.

Use

1900s to 1940s

The New York City Controller's office began moving its records to the building in mid-1906. The first municipal workers began moving their records and books into the Hall of Records that October, when the Department of Taxes and Assessments began meeting within the building. Many of the railings and shelves had not been finished at the time. The City Register moved into the building in December 1906, even as work on the ceilings was still incomplete. Horgan and Slattery claimed its final cost was $5.063 million, while other estimates placed the cost as high as $10 million. Ten percent of the construction cost went to Horgan and Slattery's design fee. From the beginning, the Hall of Records contained space for New York City's departments of

finance Finance refers to monetary resources and to the study and Academic discipline, discipline of money, currency, assets and Liability (financial accounting), liabilities. As a subject of study, is a field of Business administration, Business Admin ...

, taxes and assessments, and

law Law is a set of rules that are created and are enforceable by social or governmental institutions to regulate behavior, with its precise definition a matter of longstanding debate. It has been variously described as a science and as the ar ...

, as well as the New York County Register, County Clerk, and Surrogate's Court. A small number of records from the previous Hall of Records were never transferred to the new building and were lost. Shortly after the building's opening, news outlets reported that some of the building's "marble" was made of plaster, but this was consistent with the construction contract calling for "plaster enrichment". The substitution was not the result of corruption, but of the many changes in plans under the administrations of three mayors. During mid-1907, the president of the Department of Taxes and Assessments suggested removing the false-marble panels above each doorway, which by then had already started to darken. In addition, despite the building's high construction cost and the $90,000 annual maintenance cost, the ''New-York Tribune'' reported in 1907 that the building was already dirty and that some furnishings had been damaged to an extent described as "little short of criminal". In 1911, the Hall of Records' power plant began providing electricity to two other buildings nearby.

George McAneny George McAneny (December 24, 1869 – July 29, 1953), was an American newspaperman, municipal reformer and advocate of preservation and city planning from New York City. He served as Manhattan Borough President from 1910 to 1913, President of th ...

, the borough president of New York City, also proposed installing an ice-making plant in the building's basement in 1913, which would have been supplied by the building's power plant. By the mid-1910s, the building contained 8,000 books of

property title In property law, title is an intangible construct representing a bundle of rights in a piece of property in which a party may own either a legal interest or equitable interest. The rights in the bundle may be separated and held by different part ...

s, one million mortgages, and over one million deeds. Other agencies and organizations moved to the building after its completion. The Vehicular Tunnel Commission was established in the Hall of Records in 1919 to oversee the

Holland Tunnel The Holland Tunnel is a vehicular tunnel under the Hudson River that connects Hudson Square and Lower Manhattan in New York City in the east to Jersey City, New Jersey, in the west. The tunnel is operated by the Port Authority of New York an ...

's construction, and an employment bureau for soldiers opened there the same year. The Naval Reserve Force also opened an office on the third floor in the 1910s. After the city's oldest records (dating from the 16th and 17th centuries) were rediscovered in the late 1920s, they were moved to the Hall of Records. The original elevators in the Hall of Records operated for several decades and, over the years, the number of elevators was cut from ten to six. Faults in the Hall of Records' elevator system had resulted in several deaths, while elevator operators were reluctant to operate them. The city government spent several hundred thousand dollars to repair the faulty elevators during the 1930s and 1940s.

1950s to 1990s

In 1950, the city sold off around 500,000 old

chattel mortgage Chattel mortgage, sometimes abbreviated ''CM'', is the legal term for a type of loan contract used in some states with legal systems derived from English law. Under a typical chattel mortgage, the purchaser borrows funds for the purchase of mov ...

s and other records to providing space for newer documents in the Hall of Records. New elevators were installed in the building in 1953. During the decade, officials microfilmed about 845,000 of the building's records to preserve them in case of a nuclear bombing. The city proposed converting all of the records to microfilm, but real-estate professionals opposed the plan because they would no longer be able to access physical record books. Another modification was made to the eastern facade in 1959, when the statues flanking the Centre Street entrance were removed because of street-widening work and the expansion of the underlying subway station. The statues were reinstalled at the

in the early 1960s. Civic Center NYC Aug 2022 41

The Hall of Records was renamed the Surrogate's Courthouse in 1962. The

New York City Council The New York City Council is the lawmaking body of New York City in the United States. It has 51 members from 51 council districts throughout the five boroughs. The council serves as a check against the mayor in a mayor-council government mod ...

adopted a resolution to rename the structure that October because most of the building's space was used by the court and related offices. By that decade, the records of the Surrogates' Court were spread across four stories of the building. During the mid-1960s, the

government of New York City The government of New York City, headquartered at New York City Hall in Lower Manhattan, is organized under the New York City Charter and provides for a mayor-council system. The mayor is elected to a four-year term and is responsible for the ...

proposed a new Civic Center municipal building, which would have entailed destroying several surrounding buildings. The architects of the planned building had proposed the courthouse's eventual demolition because the plans called for the new building and City Hall to be the only structures in an expanded City Hall Park. Land acquisition began in late 1964, but the redevelopment plans were ultimately scrapped during the

1975 New York City fiscal crisis It was also declared the ''International Women's Year'' by the United Nations and the European Architectural Heritage Year by the Council of Europe. Events January * January 1 – Watergate scandal (United States): John N. Mitchell, H. R. ...

. During a renovation of the Municipal Building in the 1970s, the Municipal Reference Center was moved to the Surrogate's Courthouse. The facade of the Surrogate's Courthouse was also cleaned in the 1970s. Following a $300,000 renovation of the building's first floor, the Department of Records and Information Services (DORIS) was founded in 1977 on the first floor. The new agency superseded the Municipal Reference Center as well as the separate Municipal Archives and Record Center, which housed the archives. During the late 20th century, archival materials from other locations in New York City were also relocated to the Surrogate's Courthouse. In addition, exhibits of archival material were sometimes displayed in the building's main lobby. New York City mayor

Rudy Giuliani Rudolph William Louis Giuliani ( , ; born May 28, 1944) is an American politician and Disbarment, disbarred lawyer who served as the 107th mayor of New York City from 1994 to 2001. He previously served as the United States Associate Attorney ...

proposed transferring DORIS's archive within the building to the

New York City Department of Citywide Administrative Services The New York City Department of Citywide Administrative Services (DCAS) is a department of the New York City government tasked with recruiting, hiring, and training City employees, managing 55 public buildings, acquiring, selling, and leasing Cit ...

(DCAS) in the late 1990s, but the city's archivists opposed the move. By then, most of the Municipal Archives' collection was stored at

Bush Terminal Industry City (also Bush Terminal) is a historic Intermodal freight transport, intermodal shipping, warehousing, and manufacturing complex on the Upper New York Bay waterfront in the Sunset Park, Brooklyn, Sunset Park neighborhood of Brooklyn ...

Brooklyn Brooklyn is a Boroughs of New York City, borough of New York City located at the westernmost end of Long Island in the New York (state), State of New York. Formerly an independent city, the borough is coextensive with Kings County, one of twelv ...

, rather than at the Surrogate's Courthouse. Unlike the courthouse, the Bush Terminal facility did not have

climate control Heating, ventilation, and air conditioning (HVAC ) is the use of various technologies to control the temperature, humidity, and purity of the air in an enclosed space. Its goal is to provide thermal comfort and acceptable indoor air quality. H ...

, prompting concerns over the deterioration of the records at Bush Terminal.

2000s to present

The

New York City Department of Finance The New York City Department of Finance (DOF) is the revenue service, taxation agency and recorder of deeds of the government of New York City. Its Parking Violations Bureau is an administrative court that adjudicates parking violations, while its ...

used part of the second floor for registering and storing

mortgage A mortgage loan or simply mortgage (), in civil law (legal system), civil law jurisdictions known also as a hypothec loan, is a loan used either by purchasers of real property to raise funds to buy real estate, or by existing property owners t ...

s and

deed A deed is a legal document that is signed and delivered, especially concerning the ownership of property or legal rights. Specifically, in common law, a deed is any legal instrument in writing which passes, affirms or confirms an interest, right ...

s until 2001. ''New York Times'' reporter David W. Dunlap wrote in 2006 that, although the general public could not enter the building unless they had business there, DCAS had advised its guards to allow visitors to see the lobby. The general public was allowed to access the records in the building, but the archival rooms could not fit large groups. The

moved into a space on the second floor in 2006, following a $4.1 million renovation designed by

Swanke Hayden Connell Architects Swanke Hayden Connell Architects was an international architecture, interiors and historic preservation firm with U.S. headquarters in New York City. History The firm was founded in New York in 1906 by Alexander Stewart Walker (1876–1952) and ...

. The Building Energy Exchange was also established in the Surrogate's Courthouse in 2015, occupying a space once used as a courtroom and as a film set. By the early 21st century, the Surrogate's Courthouse no longer provided sufficient space for the city's records. In 2017, DORIS began moving the records to the New York State Archives, as well as to the Municipal Archives in the building's basement. In addition, between 2016 and 2020, Urbahn Architects renovated the lobby's skylight, which involved replacing several parts of the corroded steel frame as well as adding replicas of the original skylight's glass blocks. The skylight replacement project received the 2020 Lucy Moses Preservation Award from the

New York Landmarks Conservancy The New York Landmarks Conservancy is a non-profit organization "dedicated to preserving, revitalizing, and reusing" historic structures in New York (state), New York state. It provides technical and financial skills to owners of historic propert ...

Impact

Upon the Hall of Records' completion, the ''Brooklyn Daily Eagle'' said: "The exterior of the big granite pile on Chambers and Centre streets may appeal to the artistic eye, but the interior is a positive revelation, and there is probably nothing like it in any city of the Union." Montgomery Schuyler, who had been on the committee that approved Thomas's plans, wrote in 1905 that "the Hall of Records comes nearer than any other public building in New York to recalling" what he described as a "Parisian" quality. Schuyler said that the design "has reproduced the effect of monuments designed under so much simpler conditions". The ''

Detroit Free Press The ''Detroit Free Press'' (commonly referred to as the ''Freep'') is a major daily newspaper in Detroit, Michigan, United States. It is the largest local newspaper owned by Gannett (the publisher of ''USA Today''), and is operated by the Detro ...

'' praised the Hall of Records as "one of the most beautiful pieces of architecture in the country", and ''

The Christian Science Monitor ''The Christian Science Monitor'' (''CSM''), commonly known as ''The Monitor'', is a nonprofit news organization that publishes daily articles both in Electronic publishing, electronic format and a weekly print edition. It was founded in 1908 ...

'' similarly described the structure as one of the city's prettiest buildings. ''Broadway Magazine'' said that the building "to some appears wasteful extravagance, to others wonderful and satisfying art". Architecture critic

Paul Goldberger Paul Goldberger (born December 4, 1950)Brennan, Elizabeth A.; Clarage, Elizabeth C''Who's who of Pulitzer Prize winners'' Greenwood Publishing Group, 1999. Cfp.87on Paul Goldberger

stated that the courthouse's interior was one of the city's finest Beaux-Arts interiors, and he compared the building favorably to two contemporaries in lower Manhattan, the smaller Chamber of Commerce Building and the larger

Custom House A custom house or customs house was traditionally a building housing the offices for a jurisdictional government whose officials oversaw the functions associated with importing and exporting goods into and out of a country, such as collecting ...

. Goldberger also wrote in 1977 that the structure competed with the Custom House, the

New York Public Library Main Branch The Stephen A. Schwarzman Building (commonly known as the Main Branch, the 42nd Street Library, or just the New York Public Library) is the flagship building in the New York Public Library system in the Midtown Manhattan, Midtown neighborhood ...

, and

Grand Central Terminal Grand Central Terminal (GCT; also referred to as Grand Central Station or simply as Grand Central) is a commuter rail terminal station, terminal located at 42nd Street (Manhattan), 42nd Street and Park Avenue in Midtown Manhattan, New York Ci ...

"for the title of New York's finest Beaux-Arts building". The

New York City Landmarks Preservation Commission The New York City Landmarks Preservation Commission (LPC) is the Government of New York City, New York City agency charged with administering the city's Historic preservation, Landmarks Preservation Law. The LPC is responsible for protecting Ne ...

(LPC) described the Hall of Records building as "representative of a period when the Municipality of New York felt itself coming of age". The building has been used as a filming location for the television shows ''

Law & Order ''Law & Order'' is an American police procedural and legal drama television series created by Dick Wolf and produced by Wolf Entertainment and Universal Television, launching the ''Law & Order'' franchise. ''Law & Order'' aired its entire ...

'', ''Gotham'', and ''Elementary''. The LPC designated the exterior of the Surrogate's Courthouse as a New York City landmark in 1966, and the interior was similarly designated in 1976. The building was placed on the

in 1972, and it was also designated a

in 1977 for its architecture. The Surrogate's Courthouse building is also located within two historic districts. It is part of the African Burial Ground and the Commons Historic District, which was designated a city landmark district in 1993. The building is also part of the African Burial Ground Historic District, a

National Historic Landmark District A National Historic Landmark District (NHLD) is a geographical area that has received recognition from the United States Government that the buildings, landscapes, cultural features and archaeological resources within it are of the highest signific ...

References

Notes

Citations

Sources

* * * * * * * * *

External links

* {{authority control Archives in New York City Beaux-Arts architecture in New York City Civic Center, Manhattan Courthouses on the National Register of Historic Places in New York City Government buildings completed in 1907 Government buildings on the National Register of Historic Places in Manhattan National Historic Landmarks in Manhattan New York City Designated Landmarks in Manhattan New York City interior landmarks New York State Register of Historic Places in New York County Outdoor sculptures in Manhattan 1907 establishments in New York City 1900s architecture in the United States