Bronx County Courthouse
Bronx County Courthouse | |
NYC Landmark No. 0928
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| Location | 851 Grand Concourse Bronx, New York |
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| Coordinates | 40°49′34″N 73°55′27″W / 40.82611°N 73.92417°W |
| Built | 1931 |
| Architect | Joseph H. Freelander; Max Hausle |
| Architectural style | Classical Revival, Neo-Classical |
| NRHP reference No. | 83001636[1] |
| NYCL No. | 0928 |
| Significant dates | |
| Added to NRHP | September 8, 1983 |
| Designated NYCL | July 13, 1976 |
The Bronx County Courthouse, also known as the Mario Merola Building, is a historic courthouse building located in the Concourse and Melrose neighborhoods of the Bronx in New York City. It was designed in 1931 and built between 1931 and 1934. It is a nine-story limestone building on a rusticated granite base in the Art Deco style. It has four identical sides, an interior court, and a frieze designed by noted sculptor Charles Keck. The sculptures on the 161st Street side are by noted sculptor George Holburn Snowden. Two sculptural groups on the Walton Avenue side are by noted sculptor Joseph Kiselewski. The Bronx Museum of the Arts was once located on the main floor.[2] The building stands two blocks east-southeast of Yankee Stadium, and across 161st Street from Joyce Kilmer Park.
While never officially titled 'Borough Hall', the Bronx County Courthouse houses all municipal borough functions, and is listed as a borough hall on maps by the Metropolitan Transportation Authority.[3] The previous freestanding Bronx Borough Hall was damaged by fire and torn down in 1969, but had stopped operating in an official capacity long before this.
Murals
The first floor's Veterans Memorial Hall houses four 10 ft. by 36 ft. murals, one per wall, by James Monroe Hewlett, depicting historic events in the Bronx. The murals were unveiled in June 1934 and feature the following historical events:[4]
- The Arrival of Jonas Bronck – 1639, in what is now Mott Haven.[5]
- The First Meeting of the Westchester County Court – 1764, in what is now Westchester Square.
- The Battle of Pell's Point – October 18, 1776, in what is now Pelham Bay Park.
- The Departure of George Washington from the Van Cortlandt House – November 1783 in what is now Van Cortlandt Park.
A mural depicting the arrival of Jonas Bronck, considered the founder of the borough, was created in the early 1930s by James Monroe Hewlett.[6] The mural was damaged by workers in August 2013. Many people, including the proprietor of Jonas Bronck's Beer Co and a reported descendant of Laurens Duyts, a Danish farmer who traveled to New Amsterdam with Bronck on his ship Fire of Troy, sought the mural's restoration prior to the 100th anniversary of the Bronx's separation from New York County in 2014.[7]
It was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1983.[1]
Renaming
In February 1988, Mayor Edward Koch renamed the Bronx County Courthouse to the Mario Merola Building to honor the late Bronx County District Attorney Mario Merola.[8]
See also
- Bronx Borough Hall
- Bronx Borough Courthouse
- Bronx court system delays
- List of New York City Borough Halls and municipal buildings
- National Register of Historic Places listings in Bronx County, New York
- List of New York City Designated Landmarks in The Bronx
References
Media related to Bronx County Courthouse at Wikimedia Commons
- ^ a b "National Register Information System". National Register of Historic Places. National Park Service. March 13, 2009.
- ^ Larry E. Gobrecht (March 1983). "National Register of Historic Places Registration: Bronx County Courthouse". New York State Office of Parks, Recreation and Historic Preservation. Archived from the original on 2012-10-18. Retrieved 2011-01-12. See also: "Accompanying five photos". Archived from the original on 2012-10-18. Retrieved 2011-01-19.
- ^ "Bronx Bus Map" (PDF). Metropolitan Transportation Authority. October 2018. Retrieved December 1, 2020.
- ^ Ultan, Lloyd (2018). The Bronx County Building's Historical Murals: An Artistic Legacy (PDF). The Bronx County Historical Society. Retrieved 24 December 2018.
- ^ Deutsch, Kevin (November 9, 2010), "Seventy-year-old mural depicting Bronx founder Jonas Bronck damaged in courthouse construction", The Daily News, New York, retrieved 2018-08-23
- ^ Deutsch, Kevin (November 9, 2010), "Seventy-year-old mural depicting Bronx founder Jonas Bronck damaged in courthouse construction", The Daily News, retrieved 2012-02-07
- ^ "Local beer maker to Bronx County: Fix courthouse mural by borough's 2014 milestone". New York Daily News. November 24, 2013. Retrieved November 26, 2013.
- ^ "Mario Merola Grove". nycgovparks.org. New York City Department of Parks. Retrieved August 29, 2015.
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- 1930s architecture in the United States
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