Dutchess County Court House

The Dutchess County Courthouse is located at 10 Market Street in downtown Poughkeepsie, New York, United States. It is the third county courthouse to stand on that site.The first was authorized by the provincial assembly in 1717 and built in 1720, and would host New York's debate on ratifying the U.S. Constitution during the brief period when Poughkeepsie served as the state capital in 1788. It was destroyed in an 1806 fire. Three years later the state legislature appropriated funds for a new one, which stood for almost a century. An early tenant beside the courts was Matthew Vassar, later founder of Vassar College, who ran a saloon and oyster bar in the basement.It was replaced by the current structure, built in 1903 at a cost of a half million dollars and opened and dedicated just before the end of the year. It was designed by local architect William J. Beardsley in a Classical Revival style, a four-story building with red brick facing and Palladian windows in the second and fifth-story center bays with stucco decoration above. Because of a requirement in the original deed for the land, one of the original 1720 courthouse's jail cells must remain in the basement of this or any subsequent court building.