Queens Borough Hall is a public building in the

Kew Gardens Kew Gardens is a botanical garden, botanic garden in southwest London that houses the "largest and most diverse botany, botanical and mycology, mycological collections in the world". Founded in 1759, from the exotic garden at Kew Park, its li ...

neighborhood of

Queens Queens is the largest by area of the Boroughs of New York City, five boroughs of New York City, coextensive with Queens County, in the U.S. state of New York (state), New York. Located near the western end of Long Island, it is bordered by the ...

, one of the five

boroughs of New York City The boroughs of New York City are the five major governmental districts that comprise New York City. They are the Bronx, Brooklyn, Manhattan, Queens, and Staten Island. Each borough is coextensive with a respective Administrative divisions of ...

. It houses the Office of the Queens Borough President and other city offices and court space. It is located in the Kew Gardens municipal facilities stretch bounded by Queens Boulevard and Union Turnpike among other roads. Designed by architects William Gehron and Andrew J. Thomas in the stripped classical style, it was built between March and November 1940 at a cost of some $1,800,000, low for its size. Featuring a red brick facade, was 580 feet long upon construction and four stories high; the office suite for the borough president and his or her cabinet was designed for the center of the building. The building was opened on December 4, 1940, with Mayor Fiorello H. La Guardia and many other city officials in attendance. The structure subsequently won a design award from the Queens Chamber of Commerce. The building bears a striking resemblance to the Naval Ordnance Laboratory Administration building in

Maryland Maryland ( ) is a U.S. state, state in the Mid-Atlantic (United States), Mid-Atlantic region of the United States. It borders the states of Virginia to its south, West Virginia to its west, Pennsylvania to its north, and Delaware to its east ...

, (now

Food and Drug Administration The United States Food and Drug Administration (FDA or US FDA) is a List of United States federal agencies, federal agency of the United States Department of Health and Human Services, Department of Health and Human Services. The FDA is respo ...

headquarters) which was built in the same stripped classical style. A previous Queens Borough Hall, built around 1910, had been located in the Long Island City neighborhood. Queens Borough Hall was designed to serve as the center of civic life, and had other functions, such as a post office, when first built. It has become a popular spot for marriages, with some 9,000 of them being performed in the hall during 2006. Fridays are the most popular day for the ceremonies, which are presided over by the borough's deputy city clerk in a small chapel. Frederick MacMonnies's heroically scaled and controversial marble allegory of ''

Civic Virtue Civic virtue refers to the set of habits, Value (ethics), values, and Attitude (psychology), attitudes that promote the general welfare and the effective functioning of a society. Closely linked to the concept of citizenship, civic virtue () repr ...

'' (1909–22) was moved outside Queens Borough Hall in 1941, and decades later was still drawing criticism from those who viewed it as depicting "masculinity as virtue and femininity as vice". In 2012 it was moved to

Green-Wood Cemetery Green-Wood Cemetery is a cemetery in the western portion of Brooklyn, New York City. The cemetery is located between South Slope, Brooklyn, South Slope/Greenwood Heights, Brooklyn, Greenwood Heights, Park Slope, Windsor Terrace, Brooklyn, Win ...

Brooklyn Brooklyn is a Boroughs of New York City, borough of New York City located at the westernmost end of Long Island in the New York (state), State of New York. Formerly an independent city, the borough is coextensive with Kings County, one of twelv ...

. At the east end of Queens Borough Hall on 82nd Avenue, a retired

New York City Subway The New York City Subway is a rapid transit system in New York City serving the New York City boroughs, boroughs of Manhattan, Brooklyn, Queens, and the Bronx. It is owned by the government of New York City and leased to the New York City Tr ...

redbird train, R33 car #9075, was previously on display signed as a 7 train. The Redbird car was formerly a visitor center for the Queens Borough Hall, but the visitor center closed in 2015 due to low patronage, and the car was then briefly used as a landmark and for movie shoots. Following years of degradation and neglect caused by apathetic Borough Hall officials, it was decided the car would be put up for auction; It sold for $235,700 in July 2022. This is part of a greater overall effort by Borough President Donovan Richards of "reimagining the surroundings at borough hall".

References

{{reflist

External links

Department of Citywide Administrative Services page
Government buildings completed in 1940 Government buildings in Queens, New York Government of New York City Kew Gardens, Queens 1940 establishments in New York City 1940s architecture in the United States

See also

References

External links