Built 1931 Added to NRHP September 8, 1983 | NRHP Reference # 83001636 | |
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Location 851 Grand Concourse, Bronx, New York Architect Joseph H. Freelander; Max Hausle Architectural style Classical Revival, Neo-Classical | ||
The Bronx County Courthouse, also known as the Mario Merola Building, is a historic courthouse building located in the Bronx in New York City. It was designed in 1931 and built between 1931 and 1934. It is a nine story limestone building on a rusticated granite base in the Art Deco style. It has four identical sides, an interior court, and a frieze designed by noted sculptor Charles Keck. The sculptures on the 161st Street side are by noted sculptor George Holburn Snowden. Two sculptural groups on the Walton Avenue side are by noted sculptor Joseph Kiselewski. The Bronx Museum of the Arts was once located on the main floor.
A mural depicting the arrival of Jonas Bronck, considered the founder of the borough, was created in the early 1930s by James Monroe Hewlett. The mural was damaged by workers in August 2013 and many people, including the proprieter of Jonas Bronck’s Beer Co and a reported descendant of Laurens Duyts, a Danish farmer who traveled to New Amsterdam with Bronck on his ship Fire of Troy, are seeking the mural's restoration prior to the 100th anniversary of the Bronx's separation from New York County in 2014.
The Bronx County Courthouse houses all municipal borough functions and is effectively the Borough Hall of the Bronx; a previous freestanding Borough Hall was torn down in 1969.
It was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1983.
Renaming
In February 1988, Mayor Edward Koch renamed the Bronx County Courthouse to the Mario Merola Building to honor the late Bronx District Attorney Mario Merola.