Harlem Courthouse

170 East 121st Street | also 142 East 121st Street | East Harlem | built 1893

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Written with AI from the source each entry cites, then fact-checked.

1. 1893

   Thom & Wilson complete the Romanesque Revival Harlem Courthouse

   Built in 1891 to 1893 for the Police and District Courts, the courthouse by Thom & Wilson combines brick, brownstone, granite and terra cotta, with gables, arches, an octagonal corner tower and a two-faced clock. It stands at Sylvan Place, a remnant of the old Boston Post Road. In 1936 a Federal Art Project mural was painted on its third floor. The city made it a landmark in 1967.

   Source: Wikipedia

2. 1936

   WPA painter David Karfunkle completes a Depression-era mural

   In 1936, Federal Art Project painter David Karfunkle completed a New Deal-era mural titled "Exploitation of Labor and Hoarding of Wealth" on the courthouse's third floor. The commission came through the WPA's relief program for unemployed artists during the Depression. The mural remains inside the building today as one of the city's surviving Depression-era civic artworks.

   Source: Wikipedia

3. 1966

   November 24

   The city's only air monitor, in the courthouse, records Thanksgiving smog

   During the smog that settled over New York from November 23 to 26, 1966, the city's single air-quality station, run by a staff of 15 in the Harlem Courthouse, was its only gauge of the crisis. On Thanksgiving night the index reached 60.6, well above the emergency level of 50. A later study estimated that the smog caused about 168 deaths.

   Source: Wikipedia

4. 1967

   August 2

   The city designates the Harlem Courthouse a landmark

   The Landmarks Preservation Commission designated the Harlem Courthouse a New York City landmark on August 2, 1967, citing its Romanesque Revival brick, brownstone, bluestone, granite, and terra-cotta detailing. The building had originally housed police and district courts serving the growing Harlem neighborhood. It was added to the National Register of Historic Places thirteen years later, in 1980.

   Source: Wikipedia

Further reading

• Harlem CourthouseWikipedia

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All 38 buildings with stories in East Harlem