William J. Brennan Hudson County Courthouse
Newark Avenue Facade
Photo: P. Shalhoub, 2002
Mid-twentieth century postcard of the
1910 Hudson County Courthouse building depicting the Baldwin Avenue (left) and Newark Avenue (right) facades.
Courtesy, Jersey City Free Public Library
Postcard showing Baldwin Avenue facade.
Courtesy, Jersey City Free Public Library
Facade detail of the William J. Brennan Courthouse.
Photo: C. Karnoutsos, 2008
Stained glass window and dome of the 1910 courthouse.
Photo: C. Karnoutsos, 2008
Stained glass window and dome of the 1910 courthouse.
Photo: C. Karnoutsos, 2008
Postcard circa 1910 showing the Greek Revival style 1845 Hudson County Courthouse in the foreground. Rising behind the old building the corners of the large white 1910 Beaux Arts style courthouse can be seen in the background.
Courtesy, Jersey City Free Public Library
Detail from the 1919 Atlas of Jersey City and Bayonne. The 1845 court house building was taken down in 1912. It stood on the open space between the 1910 courthouse and the old jail.
Credits: New York Society of Model Engineer's Library, Rich Taylor Collection and
Historical Maps of New Jersey site of Rutgers University
Hudson County Administration Building (595 Newark Avenue) By 1964, the structure was expanded upwards with additional stories so as to accommodate all aspects of the county court system.
Photo: P. Shalhoub, 2002
Hudson County Hall of Records postcard circa 1953. Nearby Willow Court was closed and the adjacent properties acquired for the construction of the new Hudson County Hall of Records and Administration Building in the 1950's.
Courtesy, RF Smith
Portrait of Justice William J. Brennan in the 1910 courthouse named in his honor.
Photo: C. Karnoutsos, 2008
Courtesy, RF Smith
Courtesy, RF Smith
Courtesy, RF Smith
Hudson County's landmark courthouse opened on September 20, 1910. Built during the American Renaissance (1876-1917) in the Beaux-Arts architectural style, it replaced the original Hudson County Courthouse built in 1845 on the adjacent property. The "new" courthouse was designed by architect Hugh Roberts (1867-1928), a resident of Jersey City. Roberts was the brother-in-law of Hudson County attorney William D. Edwards and the US Senator and New Jersey Governor Edward I. Edwards. The companies of Well Bros. and John F. Gill & Sons completed the courthouse for $3.3 million, well over the projected budget of $990,000.
Roberts' goal for the structure was to fulfill his commission from the county freeholders to design a grand beaux-arts building similar to the Essex County Courthouse by architect Cass Gilbert. He looked to combine classical style and aspects of American history that reflected the founding of Jersey City. Reminiscent of Italian Renaissance palaces, the six-story exterior (183' x 134') features massive granite walls, marble flooring, bronze window frames and doors, Corinthian columns, and a low copper dome with the torch of victory.
The four-story interior design and ornamentation received as much attention as the exterior. Eight columns of Italian green marble in the center of the building dramatically rise from the second to the fourth floor. It forms an interior court covered by a dome. Scenes of the zodiac surround the rotunda with a stained glass dome. Architectural historian Suzanne Hand remarks that the structure's grand rotunda "with its rich materials, columns, balustrades, arches, and dome shows the sumptuousness of Neoclassical Revival design" (79).
Roberts, who admired the paintings at the Essex County Courthouse, selected Francis Davis Millet as director of decoration, the same role he had for the 1893 World's Columbian Exposition in Chicago. He then commissioned four additional artists who worked at the Newark courthouse: Edwin H. Blashfield, Charles Yardley Turner, Kenyon Cox, and Howard Pyle. Their murals grace the interior of the building. They depict the history of Hudson County, such as The Coming of the English by Pyle, as seen in the Hudson County Freeholders' Assembly Chamber. The four main courtrooms on the top floor are each designed in a classical style that conveys the law's majesty.
The Hudson County Hall of Records and Administration Building (595 Newark Avenue) in the International Style of architecture opened nearby in 1953 and was enlarged ten years later. In 1966 the "old courthouse" closed, and plans were made for demolition. However, in the mid-1970s, citizens and artists waged a successful campaign to save the courthouse, which resulted in the restoration of the building and its twelve courtrooms. It reopened in 1985 for use in civil cases. The restoration program received a preservation award from the Victorian Society of America in 1988. The following year, the Offices of the Hudson County Executive returned to the historic building's first floor. In 2007, the building's rotunda was named for Theodore Conrad, who spearheaded the preservation and restoration of the courthouse.
In 1989, the Hudson County Board of Chosen Freeholders renamed the building for William J. Brennan, Jr. He was born to Irish immigrant parents in Newark on April 25, 1906, and graduated from Barringer High School, the University of Pennsylvania, and Harvard Law School in 1931. Brennan served as an army attorney during World War II and was Hudson County's assignment judge from 1949 to 1951.
In 1848, Justice Brennan was nominated by Governor Alfred E. Driscoll to a New Jersey Superior Court judgeship, and in 1952 succeeded to the Appellate Division of the Superior Court. In 1956, President Dwight D. Eisenhower nominated Brennan as an Associate Justice to the US Supreme Court, where he served until 1990. Justice Brennan's tenure on the court is recognized for his opinions in many landmark cases, such as Baker v. Carr and The New York Times v. Sullivan. He died in Washington, DC, on July 24, 1997. In 2001, the New York University School of Law opened the Brennan Center for Justice for the former associate justice. He was inducted into the New Jersey Hall of Fame in 2010.
In 2019, the County and Jersey City announced plans to renovate the landmark courthouse, raze the Hudson County Administration Building, and develop a civic district named the Honorable Frank J. Guarini Justice Complex. The former U.S. Congressman and philanthropist, Guarini is a Dartmouth College and New York University Law School graduate and donated a parcel of land for the complex. The $350 million project will be bounded by Newark Avenue, Oakland Avenue, Route 139, and a two-way extension of Central Avenue between Hoboken and Central Avenues. A judicial complex of 24 courtrooms and county offices will occupy the area and feature a three-acre public park for the Journal Square area.
The Brennan Courthouse will continue to hold civil case hearings in its eight courtrooms. A video entitled “A Link to the Past: A Vision of the Future: The Hudson County Justice William J. Brennan Court House” by the Hudson County Office of Cultural Affairs and Tourism commemorates the centennial of the construction of the 1910 courthouse.
Baer, Marilyn. "Justice Complex Moves Forward." Bayonne Community News 31 December 2020.
Brennan Center for Justice. http://www.brennancenter.org
Eisler, Kim Isaac. A Justice for All: William J. Brennan Jr., and the Decisions That Transformed America. NY: Simon & Schuster, 1993.
Gabrielan, Randall. "The Hudson County Court House and Hugh Roberts: A Building and Architect in Perspective." New Jersey Studies: An Interdisciplinary Journal. Vol. 4, No. 2 (2018).
Gomez, John. "Restoration Across the Decades: The Majestic Hudson County Justice William J. Brennan Jr. Courthouse." Jersey City Restored 2013 Calendar. Jersey City Landmarks Conservancy. Jersey City, NJ: Logomania, 2013.
Hand, Suzanne C. The New Jersey Architect. Trenton, NJ: New Jersey Historical Commission, 1995.
Mott, Jacolyn A., ed. Heroes in the Fight for Beauty: The Muralists of the Hudson County Court House. Jersey City, NJ: Scott Printing Corporation. Published for an exhibition at Jersey City Museum, 1985-1986.
Villanova, Patrick. "Square Getting Its First Park." Jersey Journal 7 November 2019.
