The cornerstone of the Old Nassau County Courthouse, located on Old Country Road in Garden City, was laid by Governor Theodore Roosevelt in April 1900, and the structure completed in a little over a year ( Fig. 1). An architectural competition held by the Board of Supervisors resulted in more than fifty submissions, including designs from such prominent firms as Trowbridge & Livingston. The winning design (Fig. 2) by William B. Tubby, the architect of the five Carnegie Libraries in Brooklyn, called for a two-story structure with a grand, double-high entrance rotunda topped by a white dome. Inside, private and public offices were situated in two side wings, and the Grand Jury Room (Fig. 3 ) occupied a large vaulted space on the second floor behind the dome and above additional offices.

Tubby’s building was unusual because it called for the use of reinforced concrete as a building material which, in 1900, was considered largely experimental. The Old Nassau County Courthouse was built using a patented system developed by Ernest L. Ransome, one of the key figures in reinforced concrete technology. The resulting structure is a rare example of a poured-in-place, non-industrial building, and is the last example of Ransome’s hollow-wall construction system to remain on the East coast.

By 1915, the needs of a growing Nassau County government required more space, and the Board of Supervisors commissioned Tubby to design two additional wings, one on each side of the building’s central block, which were completed in 1916. (Fig. 4) Between 1924 and 1928 the courthouse was gradually enlarged and updated under the direction of Architect William J. Beardsley. By the 1930s, the County had outgrown the courthouse, and a new court complex was built on the site of the old Mineola Fairgrounds; major alterations to the interior of the building took place during the 1940s and 50s. However, significant features such as the vaulted ceiling of the main jury room (Figs. 5) survive. Although the courthouse was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1978, it had been neglected.

A restoration feasibility study, funded by the Rauch and Gerry Foundations for the County Executive’s office, undertaken by John G. Waite Associates, was completed in April 2002. Following the study, the firm restored the building’s white dome (Fig. 6) to provide the County with a demonstration project. A Historic Structure Report is recently completed. A friends group, Nassau First Corporation, chartered for purposes including assistance with the courthouse restoration, has raised over one-half million dollars. The County has just been awarded a $350,000 New York State Clean Water Clean Air Bond Act grant.