New York City Hall (New York City, New York) | Federal style (architecture), movie / film / TV location, 1810s construction, Renaissance Revival (architecture), U.S. National Historic Landmark

 city hall, Federal style (architecture), movie / film / TV location, 1810s construction, Renaissance Revival (architecture), U.S. National Historic Landmark

French Renaissance-revival/Federal-style city hall completed in 1811. Designed by Joseph Francois Mangin and John McComb, Jr., it has been the seat of New York City government since 1812. Located in City Hall Park at the southern end of the Civic Center, City Hall is one of the most treasured buildings in the City. In the 17th century, the Dutch City Hall was in the old City Tavern on Pearl Street. A new City Hall was built in 1700 at Wall and Nassau Streets. It was renamed Federal Hall when New York became the first capital of the United States. The Common Council talked about a new City hall as early as 1776 but the Revolutionary War intervened. A site was chosen, the old Common at the northern limits of the City, now City Hall Park.

City Hall is roughly C-shaped in plan, with two end wings projected forward at the front. The building was originally clad in white marble, with two main floors above a high basement. In the center an attic story rises above the main roof level and is surmounted by a handsome dome cupola.

In front of the central section of the building an imposing porch with columns rises above a sweeping flight of stairs which approach it from three sides. The roof of the porch, with a balustrade, forms an open deck in front of five large arched windows set between columns.

The domed tower in the center was rebuilt in 1917 after the last of two major fires. The original deteriorated Massachusetts marble facade, quarried from Alford, Massachusetts, with brownstone on the rear, was completely reclad with Alabama limestone above a Missouri granite base in 1954-56. On the inside, the rotunda is a soaring space with a grand marble stairway rising up to the second floor, where ten fluted Corinthian columns support the coffered dome, which was added in a 1912 restoration by Grosvenor Atterbury.

Besides being a functioning city government building, it was also used in several movies, such as Ghostbusters.