Hudson County Courthouse, NJ, Murals & Decoration

Hudson County Courthouse, now renamed in honor of Chief Justice Brennan of the US Supreme Court.

The Courthouse was designed by Jersey City native Hugh Roberts, twice a president of the New Jersey Chapter of the American Institute of Architects. Roberts, brother-in-law of future United States Senator and New Jersey Governor Edward I. Edwards, received a direct appointment as architect. Construction began in 1906.

Roberts delegated the assignment of artwork and interior decorating to the muralist Francis Davis Millet, noted for his work as decorations director for the 1893 World’s Columbian Exposition in Chicago; Millet assigned himself two lunettes on the third floor and a dozen small panels in the second floor corridors. Millet then commissioned other major murals to some of the best mural artists at the time. Millet assigned two lunettes to Charles Y. Turner, as well as eight more to Kenyon Cox.  Edwin Blashfield, a close friend of Millet’s, and called the “Dean of American Muralists,” painted the glass dome and the four pendentives between its supporting arches. The Tudor-style legislative chamber of the Board of Freeholders on the second floor was created by Howard Pyle depicting early life of the Dutch and English in New Jersey. This room has been called “one of the handsomest legislative chambers in the United States.” by David G. Lowe, writing in American Heritage magazine, described the interior of the building:

“The courthouse interior is a rush of color—pearl gray and green-veined marbles, golden light fixtures, yellow, green, and blue paint. Standing in the great central court, one looks up the three stories of the magnificent rotunda to a dome whose outer rim is painted with the signs of the zodiac and whose center is an eye of stained glass worthy of Tiffany. One feels—as one does in the rotunda at the heart of the Capitol in Washington—the dignity of government and the permanence of law.

Hudson County Courthouse interior lobby as completed by EverGreene Architectural Arts

Hudson County Courthouse second floor.

Hudson County Courthouse Hall

Hudson County Courthouse Pilgrim Murals

For more information about the multi-year restoration of the Hudson County Courthouse completed by EverGreene Architectural Arts please reference the Research Tab to read the restoration reports.