Louis J. Lefkowitz Building
The Louis J. Lefkowitz State Office Building is a building in the Civic Center of Manhattan in New York City. Designed by William Haugaard, State Architect for the State of New York, the Lefkowitz Building is home, among other things, to the Manhattan Marriage Bureau.
History
Governor Al Smith laid the building’s cornerstone on December 18, 1928. At the ceremony, Smith declared that he “pray God it may stand here through the ages as a testimonial to the people of this great commonwealth.”The building opened in October 1930, and was originally home to the New York State Departments of Taxation, Finance, and Motor Vehicles. Originally known as the New York State Office Building, the State renamed it in honor of Louis J. Lefkowitz, then the longest-serving Attorney General of New York, in 1984.
In 2002, the State transferred the building to the City of New York, which began using it for marriages in 2009. The City moved the Manhattan Marriage Bureau to the Lefkowitz Building's ornate first floor lobby in order to better compete with wedding destinations such as Las Vegas. These matrimonial duties later rendered the Lefkowitz a monument to LGBTQ New Yorkers, as 293 couples wed there on the day same-sex marriage became legal in 2011.