Long Island City Courthouse

When the Long Island City Courthouse was built in 1874 in the new county seat of Queens County, it was only two stories tall with a mansard roof. Much of the building's interior and roof was destroyed in a fire in November 1904. The building was restored by 1908 with two additional stories and new exterior details. Since 1932, the structure has housed the Queens County, Long Island City branch of the New York State Supreme Court. The Long Island City Courthouse was listed in the New York State and National Registers of Historic Places in 1983 and became a New York City landmark in 1976. Several movie scenes have been filmed in the courthouse, including "The Panic in Needle Park" (1971) and Alfred Hitchcock's "The Wrong Man" (1956).

The New York State Legislature authorized the relocation of the Queens County seat from Jamaica to Long Island City in 1870. Long Island City was then a newly-formed township. Funds were allocated for construction of a new county courthouse in 1872. The original courthouse as built from 1872 to 1876 was French Second Empire style with a mansard roof with central towers over two stories. George Hathorne was the original architect. The building cost $276,000 by the turn of the century and needed frequent repairs.

The Queens County Courthouse was having work done on the roof when a fire started around noon on Saturday. November 26th 1904. The seven tinsmith were stuck on the roof and had to be rescued by the fire department with an extension ladder. Later. the front dome of the roof collapsed, falling through the dining halls and kitchen in the attic level down to the Supreme Court room and the District Attoney's offices. The library collection of the Queens County Bar was destroyed. The 100 or so male and female prisoners in the adjoining jail wing behind the courthouse were moved out of their cells and into the "great cage on the ground floor" in case they needed to be evacuated. The fourteen-inch-thick firewall between the courthouse and jail wing stopped the fire from spreading. One fireman, Patrick Lennon, was badly injured; he was found inside unconscious and was carried across the street to St. John's Hospital. The cause of the blaze was first thought to be one of the workmen's tools (a "hand furnace"), but it was later found to be an electric wire malfunction in the apartment of the janitor, Mrs. Conroy.

After the 1904 fire gutted the building, the original exterior walls were still standing. The court functions were held in the Flushing Town Hall while repairs were undertaken. Rebuilding plans were drawn up by Peter Coco in a neo-English Renaissance style. The architectural details of the exterior on the original first two stories were removed when the walls were extended upward to create the four-story structure topped by a different style roof. The rebuild added two more floors, with the fourth floor above the main cornice. The building's two construction dates - 1874 (the original cornerstone date) and 1908 - are shown in two medallions in the spandrels of the arch at the double-door main entrance. The extra floors were for accommodating expanded room for courts. A highlight of the building is a third-floor courtroom with a stained-glass ceiling. 

Several exterior wings were built in the twentieth century to house a jail (built in 1915), a jail annex (1920s), and a small office annex (1925); these three are considered part of the National Register listing for the courthouse complex. A later, larger office annex (1935-1936) is not part of the National Register resource. The Queens County court functions were moved out of the building in 1932 to make way for the branch of the New York State Supreme Court.

Around 2006, exterior repairs of the brick exterior were done and the building with its wings was re-roofed. No roof rescues were needed this time.

Anonymous. "Fire Causes Panic in Queens Jail." Evening World (New York) November 26th 1904. Evening ed, 2-2.

Anonymous. "Court House Burned. Firemen Go to Queens.." New York Tribune (New York) November 27th 1904. 1-1.

Brunetto, Daniel P. NRHP nomination of Long Island City Courthouse Complex, Queens County, NY. National Register. Washington, DC. National Park Service, 1981.

NYC Landmarks Preservation Commission. Designation Report, New York State Supreme Court, Queens County, Long Island City Branch, LP-0925. NYC landmarks. New York, NY. New York City Landmarks Preservation Commission, 1976.