Over the coming decades, reformers would come to challenge the very heart of the power structure that governed New York. Meanwhile, they would sign with relief when the notoriously corrupt attorney, Abraham Hummell, was disbarred by the Appellate Division. For decades Hummell and his partner, William Howe, had corrupted witnesses and jurors alike to obtain an impressive and highly suspect acquittal rate in criminal cases. Hummell subsequently left the country.

The coming century seemed to hold great promise for the Court and for New York Young Americans were coming from rural areas to find better-paying work in the City, and making their homes in buildings newly divided into separate apartments. At the same time, a great immigrant wave from Southern and Eastern Europe multiplied the City’s population. In 1900 that population was 3.4 million; thirty years later it had increased to over 7 million. This growth necessitated an expansion of the City’s superstructure and public transportation.

In 1902, the Flatiron Building was built on Broadway and Fifth Avenue, Opposite the Appellate Division Courthouse.

At 21 stories, it became the symbol of the New York skyline. The growth of the City resonated in several cases heard in the courtroom at 21 Madison Avenue. A 1909 plan to upgrade the City’s water supply resulted in litigation, as did a 1920 dispute over the contract to build the East River Bridge. The Court heard and decided cases concerning the growth of railroads, the subway system, the building of the 42nd Street library, and the regulation of motorized taxi fares. In a 1900 case, the Appellate Division had permitted the Soldiers’ and Sailors’ Memorial to be placed in Riverside Park.