Staten Island Family Courthouse ARCHITECT: Sibley & Fetherston DATE: 1929-31 STYLE: Neo-Classical

The Staten Island Family Courthouse, an integral part of Staten Island’s civic center in St. George, is an impressive neo-Classical building set on Richmond Terrace. In 1898, Richmond County was consolidated into the City of New York, and the old county center was moved to St. George. Between 1898 and 1919, the firm of Carrere & Hastings designed the first four buildings for the civic center. Sibley & Fetherston followed Carrere’ s design precedents, siting the family court building in line with other municipal buildings on Richmond Terrace.

The neo-Classical building was clad in terra cotta treated to look like limestone to harmonize with Carrere & Hastings’ neighboring Richmond County Courthouse. Staten Island Family Courthouse exemplifies the “boom” in courthouse construction in the 1920s and 30s and is the city’s only extant family (children’s) courthouse still in use as a cour