Borough Hall Skyscraper Historic District

This district includes approximately twenty properties, mostly late nineteenth- and early twentieth-century high-rise commercial structures. Stylistically, the buildings range from Medieval Revival to Beaux Arts to Modern. The district includes the work of numerous prominent architects, such as Helmle, Huberty & Hudswell; Mckenzie, Voorhees & Gmelin; George L. Morse; the Parfitt Brothers; Schwarz & Gross; H. Craig Severence; and Starett & Van Vleck. Two of the borough's most notable structures – the Brooklyn Municipal Building and the Brooklyn Borough Hall – are contained within the district.

The history of this neighborhood is deeply tied to Brooklyn's rise to become the most prominent and prosperous city in the United States during the early nineteenth-century. This area, immediately adjacent to the Brooklyn City Hall (later Borough Hall, completed in 1848), became the city's bustling commercial heart in the 1850s and 1860s. Transportation improvements in the later years of the century allowed even greater development. These improvements included the Brooklyn Bridge, which directly connected Brooklyn to Manhattan's commercial center. Subsequent economic growth and investment spurred the construction of newer and taller structures, including the Franklin Building at 186 Remsen Street, built in an inspired Romanesque Revival style.

The consolidation of New York in 1898 into five boroughs drove additional development in this neighborhood in the first years of the twentieth century. The Brooklyn Municipal Building was completed in 1926, followed shortly by the Montague-Court Building (1927) at 16 Court Street and the Brooklyn Chamber of Commerce Building (1928) at 75 Livingston. The area retains its commercial vitality today, and many of the buildings continue to be used as offices and retail spaces. ©2014