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Brooklyn Daily Eagle-Home Talk, Feb. 24, 1933 – Moving speeded up so new court may open for business Monday

February 24, 2023 Editorial Staff
The skeleton of the Sunset Park Courthouse in August 1931.
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Moving operations, transferring the 9th District Magistrate Court and the 5th District Municipal Court from their old quarters to the new courthouse at 4th Ave. and 43rd St., were carried on at full speed yesterday.

As a result, both courts will be able to hold sessions in the new building on Monday. Virtually all of the Municipal Court records have been moved from their old quarters at 53rd St. and 3rd Ave. and stowed away in the spacious storerooms of the new structure.

The courthouse, seen here in February 1933, was converted to non-court use in 1962. It was designated a New York City landmark in 2001 and is now used by the NYPD and Community Board 7. Brooklyn Daily Eagle photographs, Brooklyn Public Library, Center for Brooklyn History

Large moving vans yesterday completed the transfer of records of the Magistrate Court and all that remains to be removed from the ancient building on 23rd St. near 5th Ave. are a number of steel files destined for the new building.

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Originally it was believed sessions could not be held in the new building until Tuesday, but acceleration of moving operations advanced the date one day.

All old equipment not to be used in the new court must be out of its old quarters before March 1 and will be taken to the Municipal Garage at the foot of 36th St., where it will be stored for future disposal.

Paul Cummings, chief clerk of the Magistrate Court, has completed his directions as to the arrangement of equipment in his section of the new building, which is located on the first floor with an entrance on 43rd St.

Formal ceremonies on the part of the Municipal Court are scheduled for Monday while those for the Magistrate Court will not be held until March 8.

A woman enters the Magistrate Court in June 1945. Brooklyn Daily Eagle photographs, Brooklyn Public Library, Center for Brooklyn History

The Municipal Court will be located on the second floor of the $500,000 building and has an entirely separate entrance on 42nd St.

Both courtrooms are of the latest design, well lighted and well ventilated, and are dignified in their simplicity of construction.

Spacious accommodations have been made in the complaint rooms of both courts for court attaches and persons seeking to file papers.

The interior of the Magistrate Court in February 1933. Image from Brooklyn Daily Eagle-Home Talk

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