9. The Color of the Governor’s Room is Original

The Governor’s Room was likely one of the last rooms finished in City Hall. It was intended for use of the Governor in New York State, but there have been only two instances of a governor actually using it. The color of the room has changed drastically over the years. Betts explains that for a while it was an innocuous beige, when they couldn’t figure out the exact color.

However, she says, “We have a bill from the city council that says ‘paint Governor’s Room French green’…When I first started working at City Hall, we knew this fact, but we did not know what a French green was…The second time the room was restored under the Bloomberg administration, we did know what French green was because historic paint analysis had progressed to point that we knew that French green was based on a copper patina like the color of the Statue of Liberty.” The exact shade may not be exact, but the technique of developing a French green is authentic.