Louis J. Lefkowitz Building
80 Centre Street | also 10 Hogan Place, 141 Worth Street | Civic Center | built 1929
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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.
- 1928
Governor Al Smith lays the cornerstone over the old Collect Pond
Governor Al Smith laid the cornerstone for a new state office building at 80 Centre Street on December 17, 1928. Because the site sat atop the filled-in Collect Pond, builders had to extend foundation pilings from a planned 20 feet to 43 feet, roughly quadrupling foundation costs to about $1 million.
Source: Daytonian in Manhattan
- 1930
The Art Deco state office building opens ahead of schedule
Designed by State Architect William Haugaard after his predecessor Sullivan Jones was replaced amid internal conflicts, the nine-story Art Deco building opened on October 28, 1930, two months ahead of schedule. Its Maine granite exterior carried carved eagle, swag, and lion's-head details.
Source: Daytonian in Manhattan
- 1957
Louis Lefkowitz begins two decades as state attorney general
Louis J. Lefkowitz served as New York's attorney general from January 1957 to December 1978, earning the nickname "the people's lawyer." The state office building, mostly vacant by the 1970s, was later rehabilitated and renamed in his honor.
Source: Daytonian in Manhattan
- 2011
293 same-sex couples marry here on the day New York legalizes it
The city's Marriage Bureau, which had operated from the building's ornate lobby since 2009, married 293 same-sex couples in 2011 on the day New York's same-sex marriage law took effect. Seven years later, preservationists sought landmark status for the building after the city proposed demolishing it to expand jail facilities as Rikers Island closed.
Source: Wikipedia
Further reading
- Louis J. Lefkowitz BuildingWikipedia
- The Louis J. Lefkowitz State Office Bldg - 80 Centre StreetDaytonian in Manhattan
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