City Hall

New York’s City Hall is often overlooked by passersby because:

1. It is commonly blocked off from foot traffic and more specifically,

2. It is a key indicator to those walking past that they are minutes away from the Brooklyn Bridge.

However, City Hall contains is just as important as the Brooklyn Bridge. After all, they do share the title for their subway stop, “Brooklyn Bridge-City Hall”.

New York City Hall is like most other things from New York: better and more interesting. Did you know that the City Hall in New York is the oldest city hall in America? It still houses its original governmental functions, like its housing of the office of the Mayor of New York City, and the chambers of the New York City Council. It was constructed from 1810 to 1812 but what’s interesting is that the cornerstone was laid in 1803. Construction was delayed until 1810 because the design was said to be too extravagant. A brown-stone was used on the back half of the hall to lower expenses.

Like most historical buildings, city hall has its own spooky story. The tale of the murder of James Davis. At approximately 2:00 pm on July 23, 2003, Othniel Askew shot his political rival, James Davis, twice, from the balcony of the City Council chamber. However, the New York Times tells the story much better than we would so we would suggest reading the story here.

Basically, there is so much history to buildings as simple and “ordinary” as City Hall. And like the rest of New York City, when you take the time to explore what each building, neighborhood, park and person has to offer, you leave with a better appreciation and understanding of the history and emotion embedded into each site and sound.