New Location for NYC Marriage Bureau in Manhattan

While it is common to speak of ';getting married at City Hall';, in New York City the place where one obtains a marriage license (for any wedding, whether civil or religious), and where one may have a civil wedding conducted by an official provided by the City, is not City Hall, but is instead the office of the City Clerk%26#39;s Marriage Bureau.

There are five separate Marriage Bureau offices, with one in each borough, and they may be used interchangeably (for example, you can get the marriage license at any one of the five, regardless of the borough in which the wedding is to take place, and you can also get married at any one of the five, regardless of where in NYC you obtained the license.) For many years, the Marriage Bureau for Manhattan had been located in a cramped and dingy facility in the Municipal Building, across the street from City Hall Park. However, effective Monday, January 12, 2009, there will be a NEW LOCATION for the Manhattan office of the Marriage Bureau.

As of that date, all Manhattan functions of the Marriage Bureau will move to a new office on the ground floor at 141 Worth Street. Where the heck is that? Well, the building is better known as the Lefkowitz State Office Building, at 80 Centre Street; ';141 Worth Street'; is the address on the door on the south side of the building. Worth Street, by the way, is the street that runs along the north side of Foley Square, and that ';141 Worth Street'; doorway faces the New York State Supreme Court building (that is, the New York County Courthouse) at 60 Centre Street across Worth.

The closest subway stop is the complex that is made up of Brooklyn Bridge station on the #4/5/6 and Chambers Street on the J, M and Z. If you are coming from the 4, 5, and 6, use the exit that is near the back of a downtown train, or the front of an uptown train -- that is, the exit that makes you go downstairs first, and that leads toward the M, J, and Z trains. If you go all the way through that passageway, you will come up in Foley Square. Look across the street, and you will see courthouses with columns. The tall courthouse on the right, with the gold pyramid on top, is the Federal courthouse at 40 Centre Street. The one to the left of that, with the long flight of stairs, and the motto about the ';true administration of justice is the firmest pillar of good government'; carved into it, (hey, isn%26#39;t that the courthouse from ';Law and Order';? yes, it is...) is 60 Centre. The street to the left is Worth Street, and the building across the street, cater-corner to the northeast corner of Foley Square, is 80 Centre street/141 Worth Street.

New Location for NYC Marriage Bureau in Manhattan

Very helpful, GWB.

New Location for NYC Marriage Bureau in Manhattan

Great information! Especially about the location of courthouse steps in L%26amp;O. I had thought the steps were at the Brooklyn courthouse, because I was told so by a Kings County A.D.A. Guess you cannot always trust lawyers!

To all the Newly Weds to be !! Some more info in the NY Times.

nytimes.com/2009/鈥?/a>