City Hall District

Area: Fulton St. on the south to Franklin St. on the north; from Church St. east
to Pearl St.

One mile north of Battery Landing, the imperfect triangle of City
Hall Park is wedged into Broadway's steep eastern wall. Here is the
venerable seat of the municipal government, and the scene of important
historical events. Broadway clips the park precisely on the west—as does
Chambers Street on the north—and hems it in with a palisade of commer-
cial buildings whose architectural distinction, except for the Woolworth
Building, lies mainly in their renovated store fronts. The apex of the
park's ten-and-one-half-acre triangle points to St. Paul's Chapel, the oldest
church in the borough and probably the only building that presents its
back to Broadway. The eastern boundary of the park is fixed by two
streets: Park Row, which slants northeast from Broadway past old "News-
paper Row," and Centre Street, which runs north from the end of Brook-
lyn Bridge through the new civic center at Foley Square.

Paved walks subdivide the park into small grassy areas set with trees.
Rows of benches bordering the walks accommodate strollers and idlers
who pause to rest, to read, to have their shoes shined, to feed the pigeons,
or to enjoy the transient sunshine. This is a restless park: six days a week
crowds of office workers stream to and from the IRT subway kiosks on
both sides; elevated trains rattle and screech in a rambling shed at the
approach to Brooklyn Bridge; well polished automobiles bearing low
license numbers nudge into a parking space "For Official Cars Only";
policemen ceaselessly patrol the grounds; lunch-hour crowds, released
from near-by office buildings, fill the paths at noontime.

There are but two buildings in the park proper, although a third, the
triangular post-office building that was called "Mullett's monstrosity,"
occupied the southern segment until 1938. In the north central section of
the park is City Hall, and to the rear and fronting Chambers Street is the
City Court Building, formerly known as the Old County Court House.

City Hall houses the offices of the Mayor, chief executive and magis-
trate of the city, and his staff; the City Council, the municipal legislative
body; the Board of Estimate, the general administrative body; and the
Art Commission, the agency that passes on the designs for all public
buildings and works of art.

Architecturally, City Hall is an exceptionally well-executed design of
the post-Colonial period showing clearly the fact, noteworthy in its day,