The grande dame of law-and-order anchoring the Los Angeles Civic Center is 100 years old.

The Los Angeles County Hall of Justice was feted by the county sheriff, the district attorney and the medical examiner on Monday, March 10, who celebrated its centennial with an anniversary cake, a tour and remarks about the history of this imposing edifice and famous Los Angeles landmark.

“Today we celebrate our 100-year anniversary of the Hall of Justice — one of the most beautiful and historically significant buildings in California enforcement heritage. It is also an icon in our national law enforcement history,” said Los Angeles County Sheriff Robert Luna.

The Beaux Arts building was built in 1925, with the cornerstone laid on Jan. 26, 1925. The 14-story, 550,000 square-foot building was the nation’s first consolidated judicial facility. Besides the Sheriff’s Department, it at one time housed the offices of the district attorney, coroner, public defender and tax collector.

But growing space requirements caused most of the other departments to move out, leaving just the Sheriff’s Department and the District Attorney’s Office remaining tenants today.

When built, it housed 17 courtrooms and a county jail with more than 750 cells. Some of the prisoners who served time in the jail cells included mobster Benjamin “Bugsy” Siegel, cult leader Charles Manson, and Sirhan Sirhan, who killed U.S. Sen. Robert Kennedy.

Besides being a backdrop for Hollywood movies and cop-genre TV shows of the 1960s and 1970s including “Dragnet” and “Get Smart,” it was also the place where the autopsies of Sen. Kennedy, Marilyn Monroe, William Holden, Natalie Wood and John Belushi were performed.

After the cake-cutting, the top officials, sheriff deputies and others toured the museum portion of the building, walking by a few old jail cells, viewing display cases with relics from previous days when the coroner used the building.

“There’s a lot of history here and a lot of amazing people who have served and worn this uniform and pinned this badge on with honor,” Luna said.

The building sustained major damage after the 1994 Northridge Earthquake and was shuttered for 20 years, with the Sheriff’s Department and the D.A.’s offices moving to other locations.

In 2014, renovations and seismic upgrades were completed and the building reopened with the two tenants once again occupying the now-remodeled concrete and steel building, the exterior clad in granite and ornamental terra cotta. The jail cells and courtrooms are gone and many were made into offices or conference rooms.

District Attorney Nathan Hochman remembers walking by the building as a boy and later, after the 1994 earthquake, as a U.S. attorney, wondering if it would ever be used again. He was elected in November, just months before the 100th anniversary. His offices occupy the upper floors of the building.

“It feels like an old friend, to inspire us to do better and to actually achieve justice in our society,” he said.

The Hall of Justice is diagonal from Los Angeles City Hall. It is the oldest building in the downtown Los Angeles Civic Center, which also includes the Clara Shortridge Foltz Criminal Courts Building and the Kenneth Hahn Hall of Administration, headquarters of county government.

“When people come to this corner (West Temple Street and North Broadway), we send a message to the entire community,” Hochman said. “They see not only the Hall of Justice but experience justice and the people who will be serving them.”

It cost $6 million to build in 1925 and that included moving the Alhambra Hotel — pulled by 40 horses on a railroad track — said Michael Fratantoni, the Sheriff’s Department historian.

Three years after the Hall of Justice was constructed, Los Angeles City Hall opened, built with the same white Sierra granite taken from a Fresno quarry. Together, they would be dubbed the two sisters by author D.J. Waldie.

“Here’s to the next 100 years. May we honor justice and the community we serve through this beautiful building,” Luna concluded.