Born as City Hall for then decade-old Brooklyn in 1845, Borough Hall was designed by Gamaliel King who did architecture in his spare time. By trade he was a grocer and carpenter. King had actually been the runner-up in the 1835 competition to design City Hall to Calvin Pollard, a busy and prominent New York architect. A national Depression in 1837 scuttled building plans and by the time work resumed Pollard was elsewhere. King retained much of Pollard's Greek Revival design although today the original architect is completely forgotten - by ill luck not one of his New York buildings survives. The center cupola was added in 1898, the year Brooklyn was consolidated into New York City.
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