The Long Island City Courthouse was constructed between 1872 and 1876, more than two decades before Queens became a part of the Greater New York City. The French Second Empire style building was designed by a Massachusetts architect named George Hathorne. Suffering the fate of many 19th century buildings, the structure was ravaged by fire in 1904. Between 1904 and 1908 it was completely redesigned by local Queens architect Peter M. Coco who stripped the exterior of much of its ornamentation and added two stories and two entranceway columns to create a neo-Classical courthouse. (The resulting building is seen here in 1932 and remains the same today.)