When the New York County Courthouse opened in 1927, it was the successor to the Tweed Courthouse (as it was informally known) on Chambers Street. Case files, furniture, equipment, and other material were moved from the latter to the former at that time.
Prior to 1927, large bronze reliefs commemorating the lives and work of three leading and evidently highly respected judges who had presided in the Tweed, Hon. George Pierce Andrews, Hon. Henry Rutgers Beekman, and Hon. Henry Bischoff, had been installed there in courtrooms or corridors. After the county courthouse moved to 60 Centre Street, the reliefs were placed in the basement of the Tweed, where they resided forlornly and unseen for years.
In the 1980s or so, the existence of these reliefs came to the attention of the Hon. Norman Goodman, the long-serving County Clerk of New York County. He arranged to have the reliefs removed from storage and carried off to a conservator, who restored them. The reliefs were then brought to the New York County Courthouse. During a rehabilitation project at 60 Centre in the late 1980’s-early 1990’s, Mr. Goodman prevailed upon the construction management company for the project to fabricate three large metal stands to support the reliefs, which are very heavy. The reliefs were put on display on these stands at 60 Centre Street in the third-floor hallway leading to the courthouse’s Ceremonial Courtroom (Room 300), where they remain. The reliefs themselves are impressive. It has to be admitted that the stands are quite unattractive and detract from the impact of the reliefs, but, absent these stands, the reliefs would still be languishing unseen, this time probably in the basement or even sub-basement of 60 Centre Street.
The transfer of the forgotten reliefs to the New York County Courthouse at the instance of Mr. Goodman turned out to be something more than fortuitous. The deed of gift for one of the reliefs specified that it was to be moved to the new county courthouse when it was built. And so it came to pass, though it took some 60 years to get there.
Further Resources
60 Centre Street: A Look Back and Some Ruminations About the Future
by John F. Werner and Robert C. Meade, Jr., Esqs. (2023)