Building of the Day: 120 Schermerhorn Street
Brooklyn, one building at a time. Name: Brooklyn Central Court Building Address: 120 Schermerhorn Street, corner of Smith Street Neighborhood: Downtown Brooklyn Year Built: 1929 – 1932 Architectural Style: Renaissance Revival/ Beaux-Arts Classical Architect: Collins & Collins Landmarked: No The story: In almost any other city, this courthouse would have been on a main street…
Brooklyn, one building at a time.
Name: Brooklyn Central Court Building
Address: 120 Schermerhorn Street, corner of Smith Street
Neighborhood: Downtown Brooklyn
Year Built: 1929 – 1932
Architectural Style: Renaissance Revival/ Beaux-Arts Classical
Architect: Collins & Collins
Landmarked: No
The story: In almost any other city, this courthouse would have been on a main street where its powerful authority would have been projected outward, proclaiming that Here is where the law is laid down. But, here in Brooklyn, surrounded by greater and lesser buildings, it kind of gets lost. That is until you happen to be walking down Schermerhorn or Smith, and realize what a great building this is. I was surprised to learn the dates on this building, I would have guessed twenty years earlier. It has been called, along with McKim, Mead & White’s 110 Livingston St, the last of the great Renaissance Revival buildings in Brooklyn. Its structure provides the clue to its modernity. The court building is a steel frame structure, built on a granite base, with limestone clad walls. An impressive triple-arched entryway is topped by an upper floor colonnade of Corinthian columns. Inside, there is a two story lobby with a coffered ceiling, bronze elevators and railings. The courtrooms, many of which have been altered over the years, have wood paneling, decorative plaster ceilings and ornamental ironwork. I confess, I’ve never been in one of those courtrooms, they sound impressive. Today, the court building houses the criminal courts and some city offices. Those being brought in for arraignment are transported from the nearby House of Detention into the basement of this court building, in a heavily guarded entrance on State Street. I don’t think they get to appreciate the architecture. But we can. Too bad this building is not front and center, in place of the Supreme Court Building on Cadman Plaza, one of my least favorite of Brooklyn’s many civic buildings. In any case, it remains an impressive structure, part of Downtown Brooklyn’s large footprint of legal and governmental buildings, this our civic center.
(Photo:grimvale.blogspot)
(Back of courthouse, as seen from Smith St.)
CHM – The courtrooms are nice b/c of their size and windows – the detailing is/was crappy and totally deteriorated. The whole interior of the building is a tired mess.
unfortunately, they are renovating the courtrooms – one by one- and are tearing down the beautiful wood paneling, moldings, etc.
I run by this building from time to time and never really noticed how lovely it really is until reading this post. It certainly does appear to be from twenty years earlier–one would expect some Art Deco flourishes in a building from 1929-1932. It always amazes me that so many impressive buildings were built during the depression(Empire State Building being the supreme example), whereas so many hideous buildings replaced torn-down neighborhoods during urban renewal and later. As another commenter noted, many of the “bad buildings” have the best sites. Alas, that is often the case because other buildings were torn down and entire neighborhoods reconfigured to make that so.
One of the most prominent corners in Downtown Brooklyn, visible from a distance, a site where in any European City a great bank building or government building would rise, here features a nondescript two-story taxpayer with a huge red lettered sign: FAMILY DENTIST.
sigh, that’s Brooklyn.
I used to walk pat there all the time when i lived up the block on Schermerhorn. It really is a beautiful building. The court rooms are impressive- at least what I remember of the one I saw when i went to give support to a friend. The wrought iron in front is really impressive too. For some reason reminds me of a Medieval choir screen.
This building is always a pleasant surprise in the messy tangle of DoBro (ugh, the acronymphs) so it’s nice to spot it when I’m schlepping about to Trader Joe’s. A regal little dame, and indeed, one of the lost gems of the beaux-arts movement.
alas in a haphazardly laid out city like Brooklyn, the bad buildings often have great sites and the great buildings are tucked away where no one sees them.
yes, Kings Supreme is a tear down… one of these days…