Events

April 12, 2008

The Hudson County Genealogical Society will be holding its regular meeting in the Historic William J. Brennan Court House in Jersey City, NJ. Our featured speakers will be Hudson County Clerk Barbara Netchert and Sidney King, of Archives and Record Management discussing the current condition of County Records and Donald W. DeLeo, Hudson County Surrogate, will be presenting "The Probate Process and the Genealogical Value of the Probate Files."

Time: 11:00 am – 1:00 pm
Location: Theodore Conrad Rotunda,
Historic William J. Brennan Court House
583 Newark Avenue, Jersey City, NJ
Directions: Mapquest

Free parking will be available in the employee parking lot in the front of the Courthouse with the entrance on Newark Avenue. The lot is between the Courthouse and the Administration Building. You can enter the building through the main entrance on Newark Avenue at the top of the steps.

A handicap entrance will be available on Saturday on the ground floor entrance on the west side of the building next to the parking lot.

About the William J. Brennan Courthouse

Originally built in 1910, closed for many years and almost demolished, the Hudson County Courthouse reopened its doors in 1985 – restored and renamed as the William J. Brennan Courthouse.

Designed in the Renaissance Revival style by architect Hugh Roberts with soaring Corinthian columns, exquisite balconies, decorative scrolls, and the heads of lions set in the granite exterior. At the top is a copper cupola that supports a victory torch. The Director of Decoration for the 1893 Columbian Exposition, Francis D. Millet, executed the interior in marble with a bronze great seal of the State of New Jersey. Marble pillars support a stained glass dome cirled by the astrological symbols Edwin H. Blashfield, Charles Yardley Turner, Kenyon Cox, and Howard Pyle, eminent muralists, added scenes of important events in the history of the region.

In addition to its role as the scene of legal proceedings, the building also houses a number of offices, including those of the Hudson County Bar Association and the County Executive.

> More info on the Historic William J. Brennan Court House
> Jersey City Past & Present - Historic William J. Brennan Court House

Source: Jersey City Landmarks.com