Bronx County Courthouse

Bronx County Courthouse
Location 851 Grand Concourse, Bronx, New York
Coordinates 40°49′34″N 73°55′27″W / 40.82611°N 73.92417°W / 40.82611; -73.92417Coordinates: 40°49′34″N 73°55′27″W / 40.82611°N 73.92417°W / 40.82611; -73.92417
Built 1931
Architect Joseph H. Freelander; Max Hausle
Architectural style Classical Revival, Neo-Classical
NRHP Reference # 83001636[1]
Added to NRHP September 8, 1983

The Bronx County Courthouse, also known as the Mario Merola Building, is a historic courthouse building located in 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]

A mural depicting the arrival of Jonas Bronck, considered the founder of the borough, was created in the early 1930s by James Monroe Hewlett.[3] The mural was damaged by workers in August 2013 and many people, including the proprieter 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, are seeking the mural's restoration prior to the 100th anniversary of the Bronx's separation from New York County in 2014.[4]

The Bronx County Courthouse houses all municipal borough functions and is effectively the Borough Hall of the Bronx; a previous freestanding Borough Hall was torn down in 1969.

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 District Attorney Mario Merola.[5]

See also

References

  1. 1 2 Staff (2009-03-13). "National Register Information System". National Register of Historic Places. National Park Service.
  2. ↑ Larry E. Gobrecht (March 1983). "National Register of Historic Places Registration: Bronx County Courthouse". New York State Office of Parks, Recreation and Historic Preservation. Retrieved 2011-01-12. See also: "Accompanying five photos".
  3. ↑ 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
  4. ↑ Local beer maker to Bronx County: Fix courthouse mural by borough's 2014 milestone New York Daily News November 24, 2013 http://www.nydailynews.com/new-york/bronx/local-beermaker-bronx-county-fix-courthouse-mural-centennial-article-1.1526847#ixzz2lnQYtgQv Accessed November 26, 2013
  5. ↑ "Mario Merola Grove". NYC Parks Website. Retrieved August 29, 2015.


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