Surrogate's Courthouse

Manhattan, United States

Open to visitors

The interior is normally open, possibly ticketed.

Strollie cannot guarantee access — always check before you travel.

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Heritage registerNational Register of Historic Places↗

Completed in 1907 at the northwest corner of Chambers and Centre Streets in Manhattan's Civic Center, the Surrogate's Courthouse is a monumental Beaux-Arts structure designed by John Rochester Thomas, with Arthur J. Horgan and Vincent J. Slattery overseeing its completion after Thomas's death in 1901. The seven-story steel-framed building features a granite facade and elaborate marble interiors, with a fireproof construction engineered to safely house the city's archival records. Its exterior is richly ornamented with fifty-four sculptures by Philip Martiny and Henry Kirke Bush-Brown, and three-story colonnades crowned by Corinthian capitals line Chambers and Reade Streets. Originally planned in the late nineteenth century to replace an outdated civic building, the courthouse—originally called the Hall of Records—houses the New York City Municipal Archives in its basement and the Surrogate's Court for New York County on its fifth floor. Now a National Historic Landmark with both exterior and interior designated as New York City landmarks, the building faces City Hall Park and overlooks the Tweed Courthouse and Manhattan Municipal Building.