\[The Miriam and Ira D. Wallach Division of Art, Prints and Photographs: Print Collection, The New York Public Library. "City Hall." The New York Public Library Digital Collections. 1826.]

In the 17th century, the civic life of New Amsterdam revolved around the City Tavern, which was built in 1642 at the corner of Coenties Slip and Pearl Street. In 1653, the tavern was converted by Peter Stuyvesant into the first official City Hall (Stadt Huys in Dutch), while continuing to serve beer. The second official City Hall was built on Wall Street by the English in 1699-1700, and was extensively renovated and renamed Federal Hall in anticipation of George Washington's presidential inauguration on April 30, 1789. By the end of the 18th century, New York's government was outgrowing its space on Wall Street. \[Federal Hall on Wall Street. Engraving, 1789]

In 1802, the City of New York held a competition for a new City Hall. The winning plan by architects Joseph François Mangin, a French émigré, and John McComb Jr., a New Yorker, set the stage for the construction of one of the finest architectural achievements of the period. City Hall is designed in the Federal style with clear French influences that are exemplified by the five arched windows, delicate ornamental swags, and decorative Corinthian- and Ionic-style columns and pilasters. \[Corinthian columns, City Hall. Photograph by Glenn Castellano, 2007]

At the time of its completion in 1812, City Hall was one of the three tallest buildings in the city. It offered so much space that, in addition to housing all three wings of the government – legislative, executive, and judicial – it included wine and beer cellars, a chapel, small jails, and a housekeeper’s apartment. As New York grew rapidly throughout the 19th and 20th centuries, many of the rooms and spaces in the building were repurposed. \[New York City Hall Key Plan, First Floor, architect Grosvenor Atterbury. Cyanotype, 1912]

Located on the southwest corner of the first floor, the Blue Room originally housed the Mayor’s Public Office, with the Mayor’s Private Office adjacent to it. \[Mayor’s Reception Room after the Grosvenor Atterbury restoration. Photograph by Apeda NY, circa 1915]

The Blue Room contains one of the few remaining original architectural details of City Hall: a black-and-white marble mantelpiece. \[Marble mantelpiece detail. Photograph, 1998]

The room remained the Mayor’s Public Office until 1902 when it was renovated by architect William Martin Aiken and renamed the Mayor’s Reception Room. Today, the Blue Room is used for Mayoral press conferences. \[Mayor's Reception Room. Photograph, 1984]

The Board of Estimate chamber on the second floor originally housed the Court of Sessions (a Criminal Court) and the Superior Court. As the largest room in the building, the courtroom was occasionally used for large celebrations and meetings during the first half of the 19th century. \[Chamber of the Board of Aldermen. Lithograph for Jos. Shannon's Manual by W. C. Rogers & Co., 1868]

The Board of Aldermen (renamed the City Council in 1938) used the Board of Estimate room from 1875 until 1898 when it moved into the newly created Aldermanic Chamber (now the City Council Chamber) on the east side of the building. The room subsequently housed the Municipal Council and the Board of Estimate and Apportionment, which underwent several transformations, ultimately becoming the Board of Estimate. In 1912-1913, the room was renovated by architect Grosvenor Atterbury. He installed long wooden benches that referenced the chamber’s past as a courtroom. These benches currently line the hallways throughout City Hall. In 1990, the Board of Estimate was abolished, and the chamber was used for public hearings and ceremonies. The room is now known as the Bullpen, an open-plan workspace for mayoral staff. \[The Board of Estimate Chamber. Photograph undated. Gift to the Design Commission by Margot Gayle]

Originally two courtrooms and a corridor, the Aldermanic Chamber (now the City Council Chamber) was renovated in 1897 to provide an adequate meeting space for the City’s newly created bicameral legislative body. John H. Duncan, the designer of Grant’s Tomb, led the redesign. \[City Council Chamber, facing gallery. Photograph, undated. Gift to the Design Commission by Margot Gayle]

Work for the Chamber was completed in less than three months, in time for the consolidation of the five municipalities into Greater New York. Duncan added mahogany paneling, a decorative plaster ceiling with bas reliefs by John Massey Rhind, ornate gilded frames, and a horseshoe-shaped spectator’s gallery with an intricate wrought-iron railing. The room was also outfitted with a dais that includes an ornately carved desk, American Renaissance Revival style chair, and a decorative wooden baldachin. \[The restored City Council Chamber. Photograph by Glenn Castellano, 2012]

In 1903, under the direction of architect William Martin Aiken, the ceiling was completed with a mural series by Taber Sears and assistants George W. Breck and Frederick C. Martin, entitled “The City of New York, as the Eastern Gateway of the American Continent, Receiving Tributes of the Nations.” \["The City of New York, as the Eastern Gateway of the American Continent, Receiving Tributes of the Nations"(1903) by Taber Sears. Photograph, 2013]

Currently, the City Council Chamber is also home to portraits of the Marquis de Lafayette (1826) by Samuel Finley Breese Morse, David Thomas Valentine (1852) by Charles Wesley Jarvis, and George Washington (date unknown) by M. M. Swett, as well as the plaster model of Thomas Jefferson (1833) by David d’Angers. \[Marquis de Lafayette (1826) by Samuel Finley Breese Morse. Photograph by Glenn Castellano, 2006]

Since its completion in 1815-1816, the Governor’s Room has served as a museum and a reception hall celebrating the civic history of New York and the nation. \[Central chamber of the Governor's Room. Drawing by Charles Burton, 1830]

The three chambers of the Governor’s Room house historic furnishings, including pieces by Charles Christian and Honoré Lannuier, and other notable artifacts, such as a desk used by George Washington and brought to City Hall in 1844. \[Governor's Room, central chamber. Photograph by David Zade, 2004]

In the early 19th century, the Governor used the room for formal receptions as well as to receive visitors when he was in the city. Many distinguished guests have visited the Governor’s Room, including President James Monroe, President Andrew Jackson, the Marquis de Lafayette, Albert Einstein, and Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. The room hosted President-elect Abraham Lincoln in 1861 and served as the backdrop for his coffin in 1865 as he lay in state. \[Flag Day Ceremony reception in the Governor's Room (Governor Whitman, center). Photograph, June 24, 1915]

Installed in the Governor’s Room and throughout the building, the City Hall Portrait Collection consists of more than 100 paintings by some of the leading late-18th to mid-19th-century American artists and exemplifies the evolution in the style of early American portraiture. Highlights include Commodore Oliver Hazard Perry (1816) by John Wesley Jarvis; George Washington (1790) by John Trumbull, which was completed before City Hall was built; and the marquis de Lafayette (1826) by Samuel F. B. Morse, inventor of Morse code. \[Oliver Hazard Perry (1816) by John Wesley Jarvis. Photograph by Glenn Castellano, 2007]

\[George Washington (1790) by John Trumbull. Photograph by Glenn Castellano, 2007]

Just inside the main lobby of City Hall, the soaring rotunda is dramatically encircled by a keystone-cantilevered marble staircase, one of the first of its kind in the country and a feat of engineering ingenuity. The staircase rises from the lobby to the second floor, where 10 Corinthian columns support the coffered dome and oculus above, recalling the Pantheon in Rome. The marble flooring and decorative iron balustrade add to the rotunda’s grandeur. \[Rotunda stairway. Photograph, 1961]

In 1858, during a firework display in celebration of the laying of the Atlantic Cable, the dome caught fire and was severely damaged. Subsequently, the dome and cupola were rebuilt by architect Leopold Eidlitz. In 1912-1915, as part of a larger City Hall restoration project, architect Grosvenor Atterbury lowered the height of the dome, widened and redesigned the oculus, added a frieze of plaster rinceau ornament and a new balustrade based on John McComb’s original drawings, and painted the dome. \[The Miriam and Ira D. Wallach Division of Art, Prints and Photographs: Picture Collection, The New York Public Library. "The Atlantic telegraph--fireworks at the City Hall in commemoration of the laying of the cable." The New York Public Library Digital Collections. 1858-08-28.]

\[The second floor rotunda looking east toward the City Council Chamber after the Grosvenor Atterbury restoration. Photograph, circa 1915]

Throughout history, the rotunda has been literally and figuratively the center of City Hall. It has provided a grand entry for the many people who have come to City Hall to attend ceremonies, celebrations, and even pay their respects to the deceased. In 1865, crowds climbed the central stairs to mourn the death of President Abraham Lincoln, who lay in state just outside the Governor’s Room. Two decades later, President Ulysses S. Grant lay in state at the base of the grand staircase. \[President Lincoln lying in state at the top of the rotunda stairs in 1865. Drawing in Harper's Weekly, May 6, 1865]

In 1976, the Landmark Preservation Commission designated the rotunda an interior landmark. In 1995, the rotunda chandeliers were restored. As part of the 2010-2015 City Hall Rehabilitation, the rosettes in the dome were stabilized and the entire rotunda repainted. \[Rotunda dome. Photograph, 2018]

In 1914 the Art Commission (now the Public Design Commission) moved its offices from the second floor of City Hall to the third floor, where it resides to this day. Originally a half-story attic space, the third floor was rebuilt as a full story after a fire substantially damaged it in 1858. It then served as an apartment for the building’s custodian and his family, with four bedrooms, a kitchen, dining room, parlor, and a bathroom. \[Custodian's Apartment, Third Floor, City Hall. Photograph, circa 1910, gift to the Design Commission by Margot Gayle. \[Custodian's Apartment, Third Floor, City Hall. Photograph, circa 1910, gift to the Design Commission by Margot Gayle]

The Commission’s new space was renovated by Grosvenor Atterbury to meet the needs of a public review agency and officially reopened on December 28, 1914. The floor included a storeroom, offices, library, and board room, all connected by a circular hallway that surrounds the rotunda with windows that provide views of the “floating” staircase below and doors that lead to the east and west attic spaces. Atterbury also added a marble stairwell from the second-floor rotunda to the northwest corner of the third floor. \[Art Commission Boardroom. Photograph, circa 1916]

The board room was originally decorated with antiques donated by the Commission’s president, Robert W. DeForest. Many of these pieces still adorn the offices today, including a cherrywood secretary, hand-painted grandfather clock, and tavern table that is still used for the Commission’s monthly meetings. \[Art Commission group portrait. Photograph, circa 1926]

A number of other antiques have been collected by the Commission over the years, including a French neoclassical bronze clock, two 19th-century giltwood convex mirrors, two wrought iron American colonial chandeliers, and a circa 1920s settee (featured in the first Ghostbusters movie). \[French Neoclassical bronze mantel pendulum clock, retailed by Marchand, Paris, early 19th century. Photograph by Glenn Castellano, 2008]

The offices also include various artwork models that have been submitted to the Commission for review, such as the studies for the Maine Monument (1901-1913) by Attilio Piccirilli and the Henry Hudson Memorial (c. 1935-1938) by Karl H. Gruppe. \[Carved stone study for the Maine Monument, Sculptor Attilio Piccirilli, circa 1901-1913. Photograph by Glenn Castellano, 2008]

Selections from the City Hall Portrait Collection line the walls of the third floor, including Edward Ludlow Mooney’s painting of the secretary to the Sultan of Zanzibar, Ahmad bin Na’aman. \[Ahmad bin Na'aman (1840) by Edward Ludlow Mooney. Photograph by Glenn Castellano, 2007]