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The Old New York County Courthouse at 52 Chambers Street in Manhattan, New York City, more commonly known as the Tweed Courthouse, was built in Italianate style with Romanesque Revival interiors, using funds provided by the corrupt William M. "Boss" Tweed, whose Tammany Hall political machine controlled the city and state governments at the time. The outer shell of the building was constructed from 1861–1872 by the architect John Kellum, with the political appointee Thomas Little.〔Little was a political appointee on the New York City Board of Supervisors who shared ''ex officio'' credit.〕 Construction was interrupted when the kickbacks and corruption involved in the construction of the building were disclosed to the public. The project was completed by architect Leopold Eidlitz who added the rear wing and interior renovations from 1877–1881, departing from Kellum's classicism with "an American version of organic architecture expressed through medieval forms".〔(Landmarks Preservation Commission, 16 October 1984 )〕 The building was designated a New York City landmark and added to the National Register of Historic Places, both in 1984, when it was called "one of the city's grandest and most important civic monuments".〔 It was named a National Historic Landmark in 1986.〔 Modern restoration and historic preservation of the courthouse were completed in 2001, and the building is now home to the New York City Department of Education. The Tweed Courthouse is the second oldest city government building in Manhattan, after City Hall.〔, pp.28-29〕 ==Architecture== The building is composed of a central section with two projecting wings, with an addition in the center on the south facade. The entry portico on the main Chambers Street facade (''illustration'') rises three and a half stories from a low granite curb, supported by four Corinthian columns. Panels of granite and Tuckahoe and Sheffield marbles are anchored to the outside of the brick structure, with rusticated stone at the basement level. This main wing was designed by Kellum in the style of the Renaissance palazzo, described as the "Anglo-Italianate" style to reveal the influence of British Victorian architecture that was the foundation of the popular American Victorian style. The southern wing of the courthouse was constructed in the Romanesque Revival style by the German-born architect and theoretician Leopold Eidlitz, who added the wide rotunda enclosing the central courtyard, which Kellum had intended to be capped with a dome, which was never built. On the east and west sides of the rotunda are sets of cast iron stairs that run from the first to the third floors. The pillars on the interior were faux painted to resemble marble pillars, and the cast-iron handrails at the staircase were painted with a wood-grained finish. 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア(Wikipedia)』 ■ウィキペディアで「Tweed Courthouse」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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