Courtrooms have two-story high ceilings, and the upper floor hallways have expansive views of the Great South Bay, Fire Island and the Atlantic Ocean.

The courthouse is one of the buildings constructed on the grounds of the former 788-acre (3.19 km2) Central Islip Psychiatric Center, which was decommissioned in 1996 after its last remaining patients were relocated.

[4] Since June 2015, the building has also been the location of the Long Island Office of Disability Adjudication and Review, which handles appeals of Social Security Administration determinations.

The educational exhibit traces the development of shorthand, stenography and court reporting from ancient times to the present in many parts of the world.

On display are examples of shorthand from the ancient Middle East and China, as well as books about stenographic techniques from various countries and numerous stenotype machines from different periods and for different languages.