Wedding Images at the Monroe County Building
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On Independence Day, 1894, community leaders, responding to the continued tremendous growth in Monroe County, laid the cornerstone for the current Monroe County Office Building. Two years and $881,000 later, the four-story granite and marble courthouse was complete. Designed by J. Foster Warner in the style of the Italian Renaissance, the newest County Office Building set the trend for much of the development in Downtown Rochester that would follow. Never content with the building, a decision was made to construct a rear addition to the building in 1924, upping its total cost to $1,201,000.
The Italian Renaissance architecture that is the County Office Building’s hallmark becomes immediately evident as you enter. On the east wall of the foyer there is a plaque commemorating the committee that spearheaded the building’s construction, and on the west wall is a plaque dedicated to those who donated the building’s site to the county – Rochester’s forefathers: Nathanial Rochester, Charles Carroll and William Fitzhugh.
Atrium
The building’s focal point is its center atrium featuring Italian marble walls and columns that rise the entire four floors to the main skylight 100 feet above. Intricate wrought iron railings and brass fixtures grace each floor and the marble stairway that winds throughout the building.