Walk around the Nassau County Courthouse building on Old Country Road in Mineola and the observant eye sees several things.

Photo: David Handschuh/NYLJ.

An imposing and solid-looking Beaux Arts-style structure with beautiful sculpted panels illustrating Nassau County life in the 1930s and lion heads wrap around all four sides of the building.

Giant stone eagle sculptures and copper tripods, turned green by time, guard the steps leading into the building.

Inside, tall columns and an open, naturally lit rotunda rival that of the Lincoln Memorial. That's because Lawrence Lincoln, a protégé of the architect who planned the Lincoln Memorial, designed the Nassau County Court.

But unfortunately, some of the sandstone exterior is separating from the building, single-pane windows are rusted and leaking, parts of the façade are decaying and many of the ornamental designs are deteriorating.

“Our courthouse here in Nassau County needs TLC, “ said Brendan Brosh, a spokesperson for District Attorney Madeline Singas, whose office is in the building.

“We have a gorgeous rotunda and countless fossils are visible in the stone used throughout the building,” said Dan Looney, deputy executive assistant district attorney for litigation operations in the Nassau County District Attorney's Office.

Dan Looney. Photo: David Handschuh/NYLJ.

Looney, the unofficial resident historian and preservationist, is spreading the word about restoring the building to its past glory. He is leading the fight to get landmark status for the building, with the hope that certain federal and state funds can be used to fix the courthouse.

Restoration won't happen easily. Looney is using all the skills and resources of a prosecutor trying a criminal case in order to find info on the materials, techniques and tools that were used in construction.

Original plans are nonexistent, as many were thrown out by the Public Works Administration in 1943 or destroyed in a large fire at Mitchell Field in 1974.

“The buildings are excellent examples of mid-20th century governmental architecture with many interior and exterior art deco style elements,” Looney said.

Those include original courtroom and rotunda chandeliers, light fixtures, judges' benches and courtroom tables where attorneys sit.

“The stately and refined architecture of our county courthouse reminds us each day of the great importance of our judiciary and mission of serving the public,” said Nassau County Administrative Judge Thomas Adams.

The courthouse complex, once known as the Nassau County Civic Center, was built on the old Queens County Fairgrounds when Nassau was still part of Queens. It was planned and constructed as a Public Works Administration project, a Depression-era federal program that employed millions to build dams, bridges, hospitals and schools.