Richmond County Courthouse
18 Richmond Terrace | St. George | built 1919
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The city photographed every building for its tax records around 1940 and again in the 1980s. NYC Municipal Archives.
Written with AI from the source each entry cites, then fact-checked.
- 1913
Borough President George Cromwell's civic center plan leads to a new county courthouse
Cromwell, Staten Island's first borough president, served five terms from 1898 to 1913. He wanted the approach to Staten Island to be as notable for its architecture as for its natural setting, planning to buy the land along Richmond Terrace, then called Jay Street, for a row of government buildings. The courthouse, designed in 1913, was part of that scheme and was set beside Borough Hall.
“Cromwell, the first borough president of Staten Island, remained in office for five terms, from 1898 to 1913…”
- 1913
Thomas Hastings borrows from the Roman Pantheon for the courthouse design
Designed in 1913, after John Carrère's death, the courthouse breaks from the firm's usual French Renaissance work. Hastings combined a Corinthian temple front and banded rustication drawn from the Pantheon with window details recalling early 16th-century Roman palazzi. The report stresses that the result is not a copy of any one ancient building but an adaptation of old forms to a modern courthouse.
- 1919
The Richmond County Courthouse opens after a construction delay caused by World War I
Work began on December 27, 1913, but the war slowed it, and the building opened on November 3, 1919. It replaced the 1837 Third County Courthouse, several miles away. At first it held a single Supreme Court justice, a Surrogate who also sat as a City Court justice, the County Clerk and the District Attorney.
“The building finally opened on November 3, 1919, to replace the 1837 Third County Courthouse several miles away.”
Source: Wikipedia
- 1982
The Richmond County Courthouse is designated a city landmark
At the September 9, 1980 hearing four witnesses supported designation and none opposed it. The designation covers the L-shaped courthouse and its lot. The report notes the formal French garden the architects planned as part of the design, which separates the courthouse from Borough Hall, and describes the two buildings together as a gateway seen by everyone arriving by ferry.
- 1999
The County Clerk and the county records leave the courthouse
The District Attorney had already moved out in 1979. In 1999 the County Clerk relocated across the street to 130 Stuyvesant Place, taking the county records with it, and the law library, set up in the building in 1920, followed in 2000.
“The County Clerk, with the county records, moved across the street to 130 Stuyvesant Place in 1999, with the law library following in 2000.”
Source: Wikipedia
- 2015
Most State Supreme Court parts move out to a new courthouse on Central Avenue
A new county courthouse at 26 Central Avenue opened on September 28, 2015, and the Supreme Court's criminal parts, some civil parts and the administrative judge's office moved there. The 1919 building kept the Surrogate's Court and the Supreme Court's Matrimonial Parts for the 13th Judicial District.
Source: Wikipedia
Further reading
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