The Surrogate's Courthouse (New York City, New York)

 office building, courthouse, NRHP - National Register of Historic Places, interesting place, movie / film / TV location, 1907_construction, Beaux-Arts (architecture), U.S. National Historic Landmark

7-story Beaux-arts courthouse/office building completed in 1907. Designed by John R. Thomas with Horgan & Slattery, the building was originally used as a Hall of Records and this was its original name. The Surrogate's Court was one of the original tenants, with courtrooms, offices and chambers on the 5th floor. The building was renamed the Surrogate's Courthouse in 1962. The New York Surrogate's Court is the court that handles all probate and estate proceedings in the state of New York, and the term also refers to the court's historical building. All wills are probated in this court and all estates of people who die without a will are handled in this court. Unclaimed property of the deceased without wills is handled by the Judge of this court.

The building is clad in grey granite, rusticated on the two lower floors. Its north and south elevations have five bays: a large central bay with four evenly spaced, fluted Corinthian columns beginning at the 3rd floor, and two pairs of end columns, two recessed bays with three windows each running six stories and two end bays with windows on the 2nd, 3rd, 5th, & 6th floors. The center section of the lower floors has three double-height round-arched openings, with recessed doorways up short sets of steps and behind wrought iron gates. Each metal and glass doorway is topped by a rounded broken pediment, with glass above lined with iron tracery. The three arches have scrolled keystones; above the central one is a panel reading "SURROGATES COURT", and above the outer two are intricate carved stone ornaments. Between the arches are seals carved in the stone, which are in turn flanked by two large cartouches. A stone cornice caps this forward-projecting lower center section. Copper lamposts, each with five bulbs, stand in front of the piers framing the arches. At the ends of the center section, which don't project as far forward, are two statues on pedestals, each with three figures.

The two end wings have ornate wrought-iron railings around the basement levels. The three 1st-floor windows are square-headed, with splayed stone lintels. Those on the 2nd floor are round-arched, with scrolled keystones, and have an additional square-headed window with a stone surround and keystone in the far outer bay. A cornice caps the entire rusticated lower section.

At the 3rd floor end wings, flanking the large columns in the center, the three window openings are round-arched with scrolled keystones; the windows themselves are square-headed and the tops of the arches are filled by stone carvings. The outer bay has a stone-enframed, square-headed window with a triangular pediment. At the 4th floor, the three windows are square-headed with stone surrounds and keystones flanked by carvings. At the corners (the outer bay) are round port hole windows with a carved eagle above, wings spread over a ship's prow. A cornice sets off the 5th floor, which has plainer square-headed windows, and a round-arched window with keystone in the end bay.

The east and west elevations have nine bays at the first floor, and follows the pattern of the longer facades, with squared windows at the first floor, and round-arched openings at the 2nd, with an additional pair of end bays with smaller, stone-framed windows. The site slopes down to the north, revealing more of the segmental-arched basement windows, set behind wrought-iron railings, as it goes. The center bay on the west side has an entrance up a set of steps, with a segmental-arched stone enframement and a rounded broken pediment with a cartouche, flanked by two copper wall lamps. There is a corresponding doorway on the east, but the steps leading up to it have been removed. Additionally, the outlines of the segmental-arched basement openings exist, but are filled in. The cornice capping the rusticated lower sections continues around the side facades as well.

The mid-section of the east facade mostly matches that on the north and south, with the giant Corinthian columns, except it has eight evenly-spaced columns, without the paired end columns. The west side's center section is differently designed, instead having eight flat, fluted piers with Corinthian capitals instead of the forward-projecting rounded columns seen on the other three facades. A projecting cornice with modillions and dentils surrounds the mid-section on all four sides.

Above this large cornice, the 6th floor has squared, stone-enframed windows in each bay, except for the end bays, which have round-arched windows topped by triangular pediments. On the east, north and south sides, there are stone statues of various figures, sculpted by Philip Martiny, in front of all of the central bays. The building has 54 sculptures in all, epresenting both allegorical figures — such as New York in Its Infancy, New York in Revolutionary Times, Philosophy, Law, and the seasons — and eminent figures from the city's past, including Peter Stuyvesant, DeWitt Clinton, David Pietersen De Vries, and mayors Caleb Heathcote, Abram Stevens Hewitt, Philip Hone, Cadwallader David Colden, and James Duane.

The roof is a high mansard covered with gray slate ornamented with copper cresting. The roof is further embellished by dormer windows with carved hoods, the central dormer on all four facades are capped with elaborate sculptural groups. Besides the 7th-story dormers, a pair of stone chimneys on each facade break the mansard roof line. Above and offset from some of the dormers are also small, round windows framed in copper.

The ornate courtrooms are decorated in gilded plaster and carved wood paneling in Santo Domingo mahogany and English oak. Other lavish interior decoration includes chandeliers and detailed bronze door knobs. An enclosed courtyard in the interior of the building extends from the first to third floors with a skylight on the fourth floor; the center court staircase was designed by Faye Kellogg, one of the foremost female architects of her time. The building is also home to the NYC Department of Cultural Affairs.

The interior is a popular site for filming and can be seen in dozens of movies and commercials. The backside of the courthouse was used as a filming location for White Collar S02 E01 "Withdrawal" as the fictional entrance to a bank. St. Andrew's Church and the Manhattan Municipal Building can be seen in the background. The interiors of that bank, however, were filmed at the Williamsburgh Savings Bank at One Hanson Place in Brooklyn.

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