A Classical Revival courthouse 

It was among the first federal skyscrapers constructed. 

The courthouse was originally known as the Foley Square Courthouse. 

The building has two major parts, the base and the tower. Including both, the building is 590 feet tall and 37 stories. 

The six-story courthouse base is marked by a pilastered facade and a colonnade. Built around three interior courtyards, it is rusticated and irregularly shaped, following the outline of the site. 

Massive granite steps flanked by large pedestals lead up to the main entrance on Foley Square.   Gilbert intended the pedestals to bear two monumental sculptural groups, but they were never executed. Ten four-story Corinthian columns form the imposing portico that shelters the entrance, and the frieze is carved with a detailed floral design. The ends of the entablature above are embellished with roundels, designed to resemble ancient coins, on which are carved the heads of four ancient lawgivers: Plato, Aristotle, Demosthenes, and Moses. The Corinthian capitals crowning the columns of the portico return to top pilasters along the building's other primary facades. Minnesota granite, off-white in color and mottled with peach and gray, was used to finish the exterior elevations of the courthouse.

Aerial view, 1936 A 30-story square tower is 590 feet in height and is set back from the base parallel to the front of the building.  

The tower is set back slightly on the 27th floor, marked by urns at the corners.  

The roof of the tower is pyramidal, pitched steeply, and made of terracotta, with a gold leaf, with a small open lantern, also gold-glazed terracotta, at the top. 

Interior view 

The building contains 35 courtrooms  Sixteen courtrooms are original to the courthouse: five in the base and eleven in the tower, including the historic United States Court of Appeals courtroom

All courtrooms have wood-paneled walls with colossal round arches and fluted Ionic pilasters  The Greek key molding seen in the main hall also enframes the ceilings of the tower courtrooms. The Court of Appeals courtroom ceiling also depicts nautical symbols.

Elevator Lobby - Richly ornamental bronzework surrounds many of the interior doors, including those of the elevators 

The bronze detailing on the doors features an unusual combination of metaphorical images related to law and government, including dolphins, an erudite if somewhat obscure symbol of birth and democratic ideals.  

Elevator Lobby 

Phone Booths 

Directory 

Architectural Detail (Owl)  Among the other motifs are grasshoppers apparently feeding on stalks of wheat, accompanied by the Greek word meta, meaning "to transform", which conveys the idea that change, even conflict, is essential to growth; there are also owls, representing wisdom, and acorns and oak leaves, signifying strength and endurance.

Architectural Detail 

2004 - Martha Stewart Convicted  According to the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), Stewart avoided a loss of $45,673 by selling all 3,928 shares of her ImClone Systems stock on December 27, 2001, after receiving material, nonpublic information from Peter Bacanovic, who was Stewart's broker at Merrill Lynch. The day following her sale, the stock value fell 16%. In the months that followed, Stewart drew heavy media scrutiny, including a Newsweek cover headlined "Martha's Mess". Notably, on June 25, 2002, CBS anchor Jane Clayson grilled Stewart on the air about ImClone during her regular segment on The Early Show. Stewart continued chopping cabbage and responded: "I want to focus on my salad." On October 3, 2002, Stewart resigned her position, held for four months, on the board of directors of the New York Stock Exchange, following a deal prosecutors had made with Douglas Faneuil, an assistant to Bacanovic. On June 4, 2003, Stewart was indicted by the federal government on nine counts, including charges of securities fraud and obstruction of justice. Stewart voluntarily stepped down as CEO and Chairwoman of MSLO, but stayed on as chief creative officer. She went on trial in January 2004. Prosecutors showed that Bacanovic had ordered his assistant to tell Stewart that the CEO of ImClone, Samuel D. Waksal, was selling all his shares in advance of an adverse Food and Drug Administration ruling. The FDA action was expected to cause ImClone shares to decline. After a highly publicized six-week jury trial, Stewart was found guilty in March 2004 of felony charges of conspiracy, obstruction of an agency proceeding, and making false statements to federal investigators, and was sentenced in July 2004 to serve a five-month term in a federal correctional facility and a two-year period of supervised release (to include five months of electronic monitoring). Bacanovic and Waksal were also convicted of federal charges and sentenced to prison terms. Stewart also paid a fine of $30,000.

1951 - Trial of Julius & Ethel Rosenberg  American citizens who were convicted of spying on behalf of the Soviet Union. The couple was accused of providing top-secret information about radar, sonar, jet propulsion engines, and valuable nuclear weapon designs; at that time the United States was the only country in the world with nuclear weapons. Convicted of espionage in 1951, they were executed by the federal government of the United States in 1953 in the Sing Sing correctional facility in Ossining, New York.