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About the Author
Russell Granger is a branding and marketing executive specializing in digital design and interactive media. He began focusing his research and archiving efforts on antebellum Brooklyn when family history pursuits led to the discovery of an association with Walt Whitman. Russell currently lives in the Dumbo neighborhood of Brooklyn, just a few streets from several ancestral addresses from the 1830s.
City Hall
Brooklyn City Hall, 1851, by John Bornet. View from Montague Street. Period tinting.
Had Brooklyn City Hall been built on the original foundation laid for it, it would have been considerably larger than it is. Begun just prior to the New York financial crisis of 1837, construction was halted until 1845, when a simplified Greek Revival plan was adopted, designed by prominent architect Gamaliel King.
It opened in 1848 and was completed in 1851 with cladding in Tuckahoe marble. The building first served as offices of the Mayor and City Council, court room, and jail. A fire in early 1895 destroyed the original clock and bell tower along with considerable damage to the top floor. A new cast-iron cupola was placed on top of the building in 1898, the same year that the New York City consolidation revised its name to Borough Hall. The building was reconfigured in 1902 to add a courtroom. A 1980s renovation restored many building elements back to their 1845 glory, and the peak of the cupola finally received the originally planned bronze statue of Justice in 1988. The building is a New York City Landmark.
