{{Use American English|date=July 2025}} {{Use mdy dates|date=July 2025}} {{Infobox building | name = Queens Borough Hall | image = QueensBoroughHall.jpg | caption = | location= 120-55 Queens Boulevard, Queens, New York | coordinates = {{coord|40|42|49|N|73|49|41|W|display=inline}} | pushpin_map = New York City | completion_date = 1940 | architect = William Gehron and Andrew J. Thomas | architecture = | area = }} '''Queens Borough Hall''' is a public building in the Kew Gardens neighborhood of Queens, one of the five boroughs of New York City. It houses the Office of the Queens Borough President and other city offices and court space.<ref name="nyc">{{cite web | url=http://www.nyc.gov/html/dcas/html/about/queens_boroughhall.shtml | title=Queens Borough Hall | publisher=New York City | accessdate=August 2, 2013 | archive-date=October 16, 2015 | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20151016193153/http://www.nyc.gov/html/dcas/html/about/queens_boroughhall.shtml | url-status=dead }}</ref> It is located in the Kew Gardens municipal facilities stretch bounded by Queens Boulevard and Union Turnpike among other roads.
Designed by architects William Gehron and Andrew J. Thomas in the stripped classical style,<ref name="nyc"/> it was built between March and November 1940 at a cost of some $1,800,000, low for its size.<ref name="nyt120440">{{cite news | url=https://select.nytimes.com/mem/archive/pdf?res=F40D16F73558127A93C6A91789D95F448485F9 | title=New Queens Borough Hall Will Open Today; 3,000 Will Be Guests at a Buffet Luncheon | newspaper=The New York Times | date=December 4, 1940 | format=fee required}}</ref> Featuring a red brick facade,<ref name="nyt061707"/> was 580 feet long upon construction and four stories high; the office suite for the borough president and his or her cabinet was designed for the center of the building.<ref name="nyt120440"/> The building was opened on December 4, 1940, with Mayor Fiorello H. La Guardia and many other city officials in attendance.<ref name="nyt120440"/> The structure subsequently won a design award from the Queens Chamber of Commerce.<ref name="nyc"/> The building bears a striking resemblance to the Naval Ordnance Laboratory Administration building in Maryland, (now Food and Drug Administration headquarters) which was built in the same stripped classical style.
A previous Queens Borough Hall, built around 1910, had been located in the Long Island City neighborhood.<ref>{{cite news | url=https://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1910/04/07/104928803.pdf | title=Gresser Besieged by Irate Citizens | newspaper=The New York Times | date=April 7, 1910 | format=fee required}}</ref>
Queens Borough Hall was designed to serve as the center of civic life, and had other functions, such as a post office, when first built.<ref name="nyc"/> It has become a popular spot for marriages, with some 9,000 of them being performed in the hall during 2006.<ref name="nyt061707">{{cite news | url=https://www.nytimes.com/2007/06/17/nyregion/thecity/17wedd.html | title=Love Is All Around | newspaper=The New York Times | date=June 17, 2007}}</ref> Fridays are the most popular day for the ceremonies, which are presided over by the borough's deputy city clerk in a small chapel.<ref name="nyt061707"/>
Frederick MacMonnies's heroically scaled and controversial marble allegory of ''Civic Virtue'' (1909–22) was moved outside Queens Borough Hall in 1941, and decades later was still drawing criticism from those who viewed it as depicting "masculinity as virtue and femininity as vice".<ref>{{cite news | url=https://www.nytimes.com/1987/10/13/nyregion/statue-showing-women-as-evil-may-be-moved.html | title=Statue Showing Women as 'Evil' May Be Moved | author=Fried, Joseph P. | newspaper=The New York Times | date=October 13, 1987}} The slow-paced commission of the sculpture, its execution by the Piccirilli brothers and public resistance to its erection in City Hall Park in 1922 form a chapter in Michele H. Bogart, ''Public Sculpture and the Civic Ideal in New York City, 1890-1930'' (University of Chicago Press), 1989:259-70.</ref> In 2012 it was moved to Green-Wood Cemetery in Brooklyn.
At the east end of Queens Borough Hall on 82nd Avenue, a retired New York City Subway redbird train, R33 car #9075, was previously on display signed as a 7 train.<ref>{{cite web |last=Frishberg |first=Hannah |title=Visiting The Retired Redbird Subway Train In Queens |url=http://gothamist.com/2014/09/18/redbirds_museum_subway_queens.php#photo-1 |website=gothamist.com |publisher=Gothamist |accessdate=June 30, 2015 |date=September 18, 2014 |url-status=dead |archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20150510020552/http://gothamist.com/2014/09/18/redbirds_museum_subway_queens.php#photo-1 |archivedate=May 10, 2015 }}</ref><ref>{{cite web | last=Brown | first=Kim | title=The Last Redbird Subway Car Is Installed At Borough Hall | website=Queens Chronicle | date=February 3, 2005 | url=http://www.qchron.com/news/south/the-last-redbird-subway-car-is-installed-at-borough-hall/article_bbdd3931-f57b-55ff-a6a3-2c6a32233577.html | accessdate=July 1, 2016}}</ref><ref>{{cite book | last=Freudenheim | first=Ellen | title=Discover Queens, New York City's Best-Kept Secret! | publisher=Macmillan Books | year=2006 | isbn=0-312-35818-0 | page=[https://archive.org/details/queenswhattodowh00freu/page/156 156] | url-access=registration | url=https://archive.org/details/queenswhattodowh00freu/page/156 }}</ref> The Redbird car was formerly a visitor center for the Queens Borough Hall, but the visitor center closed in 2015 due to low patronage,<ref>{{cite web | title=Say Goodbye To The Queens Tourism Center That's Housed In An Old Subway Car | website=Gothamist | last=Whitford | first=Emma | date=July 10, 2015 | url=http://gothamist.com/2015/07/10/queens_tourism_center_rip.php | accessdate=July 1, 2016 | url-status=dead | archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20150918073839/http://gothamist.com/2015/07/10/queens_tourism_center_rip.php | archivedate=September 18, 2015 }}</ref><ref>{{cite web | last=Levy | first=Nicole | title=Five Possible Sites for a New Queens Tourism Center | website=DNAinfo New York | date=July 14, 2015 | url=https://www.dnainfo.com/new-york/20150714/long-island-city/five-possible-sites-for-new-queens-tourism-center | accessdate=July 1, 2016 | url-status=dead | archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20160821184140/https://www.dnainfo.com/new-york/20150714/long-island-city/five-possible-sites-for-new-queens-tourism-center | archivedate=August 21, 2016 }}</ref> and the car was then briefly used as a landmark and for movie shoots.<ref>{{cite web | last1=Ngu | first1=Rebecca | last2=Small | first2=Eddie | last3=Kern-Jedrychowska | first3=Ewa | title='The Get Down' Filmed a Subway Scene in Queens' Retired Redbird | website=DNAinfo New York | date=March 25, 2016 | url=https://www.dnainfo.com/new-york/20160325/melrose/get-down-filmed-subway-scene-queens-retired-redbird | accessdate=July 1, 2016 | url-status=dead | archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20160821182347/https://www.dnainfo.com/new-york/20160325/melrose/get-down-filmed-subway-scene-queens-retired-redbird | archivedate=August 21, 2016 }}</ref> Following years of degradation and neglect caused by apathetic Borough Hall officials, it was decided the car would be put up for auction; It sold for $235,700 in July 2022.<ref>{{cite web | url=https://www.amny.com/transit/vintage-redbird-subway-car-sold-auction/ | title=SOLD! Vintage 'Redbird' subway car fetches nearly quarter-million dollars at online auction | website=amNewYork | last=Duggan | first=Kevin | date=July 17, 2022 }}</ref> This is part of a greater overall effort by Borough President Donovan Richards of "reimagining the surroundings at borough hall".<ref>{{cite news | url=https://www.nytimes.com/2022/06/23/nyregion/the-tangled-tale-of-eric-adamss-apartment-in-brooklyn.html | title=The Tangled Tale of Eric Adams's Apartment in Brooklyn | newspaper=The New York Times | date=June 23, 2022 | last1=Barron | first1=James }}</ref>
In 2025, the city government completed a $6.25 million renovation of the plaza in front of the building's Queens Boulevard entrance.<ref>{{cite web | last=Schwach | first=Ryan | title=Borough Hall gets a face-lift | website=Queens Daily Eagle | date=July 10, 2025 | url=https://queenseagle.com/all/2025/7/10/borough-hall-gets-a-face-lift | access-date=July 15, 2025}}</ref><ref>{{cite web | last=Dawson | first=Athena | title=Queens Borough Hall gets ADA-accessible plaza as part of $6.25M renovation – QNS | website=QNS | date=July 10, 2025 | url=https://qns.com/2025/07/queens-borough-hall-ada-accessible-plaza/ | access-date=July 15, 2025}}</ref>
==See also== * List of New York City borough halls and municipal buildings
==References== thumb|upright|left|''Civic Virtue'' {{reflist}}
==External links== * [https://web.archive.org/web/20090523102500/http://www.nyc.gov/html/dcas/html/resources/queens_boroughhall.shtml Department of Citywide Administrative Services page]
Category:Government buildings completed in 1940 Category:Government buildings in Queens, New York Category:Government of New York City Category:Kew Gardens, Queens Category:1940 establishments in New York City Category:1940s architecture in the United States