Vineland, New Jersey

The city office building of concrete and brick was constructed in 1971 at a cost of $4.4 million. It was designed in such a way that the the heat generated by lights in the interior of the building is actually re-used to heat the peripheries. So you may see City Hall lit any time of the night since it is actually creating a net savings.

Laurel, Delaware

This structure was built in 1937 for the town offices, jail and firehouse. The second floor was a social activity center. With expansion of services the fire department moved to Tenth Street and the building was renovated in 1993.

Snow Hill, Maryland

Finished in 1908, this building once housed both the fire department and the Snow Hill town offices. The first floor featured a wide entrance for the fire equipment to get in and out easily but when the fire company relocated around the corner on Green Street, the ground floor was refitted for the more classically appointed doorway seen today. Otherwise the building’s exterior has remained unchanged, including the metal cornice that wraps around three sides of the brick building, supported by a poured concrete foundation.

Watertown, New York

Prolific Syracuse architect Horatio Nelson White designed three nearly identical courthouses like this one in New York between 1857 and 1862; only Jefferson County’s from 1862 survives. The vibrantly decorated Italianate structure features rich red brick with limestone strim. It is highlighted by a square, three-story tower. For many years the building was coated and a sandblasting in 1952 revealed its lavish details but also hastened deterioration.

Slatersville, Rhode Island

Henry Kendall bought the village in the early 1900s with a mind for preservation and renovation. He added a great deal of Greek Revival architectural trim on the mill houses to make them less distinct as mill housing as he did not believe in class distinctions. You can see his handiwork up ahead on mill houses built on Green Street. In 1921 he donated this land for construction of the North Smithfield Town Hall. A hotel and boarding house had previously occupied this property.

Branford, Connecticut

The Branford Town Hall on the Green was built in 1857 in the Greek Revival style, the front pillars and stucco were added in 1917.

Newburyport, Massachusetts

Newburyport was chartered as a city in 1851 and the cornerstone was laid and dedicated for the home of the new government on July 4, 1850. The brick building with brownstone trim constructed in the Italianate style was ready for business just eight months later.

Pottsville, Pennsylvania

This is the county’s third courthouse, the second on this site. The first courthouse was a two-story brick structure built at a total cost of $5,000. It was a simple building with the courtroom on the first floor, and jury rooms and public offices on the second. The first court was held there in 1816. In 1846 the ground at Second and Sanderson Streets was selected for the erection of the new courthouse. On this site stood the homestead of George Farquhar, a prominent member of the county bar. In this house his son, Guy E., who also was destined to become a prominent county attorney, was born. In 1914 Guy, while arguing a case, was suddenly stricken ill and died on the very spot of his birth.

The current courthouse is adjacent to the courthouse it replaced, which was vacated and eventually torn down upon completion of the new structure. A massive cornerstone about two cubic feet in size took more than an hour to maneuver into place when it was laid in 1889. It contains a large hollow space filled with artifacts from 1889, such as a copy of the construction contract; copy of the bond issue; copy of the rules of court; trial list for September, 1889 term; photograph of the first courthouse built in Pottsville; bottle of Catawba wine made by Court Crier Seitzinger in 1886; several old coins; and a list of County officials and their employees. The five-story Romanesque structure constructed from Ohio sandstone cost $320,000, almost $180,000 over the initial estimate.

Hagerstown, Maryland

This is Washington County’s third courthouse. When the county was established in 1776, the first courthouse, a combination building that served also as a market house, was built in the middle of the town square, one block east of here. It proved too small to house the government and too big and obstacle in the square. The county’s affairs were moved to a new courthouse built on the site of the present building and designed by United State Capitol architect Benjamin Latrobe in 1816. That building burned in December 1871. The cornerstone of the present building was laid on October 9th, 1872. The design was by H. A. and J. P. Simms of Philadelphia and the construction was by Robert C. Thornburg. Just over a year later, on January 2, 1874, the County Commissioners accepted the completed courthouse and held their first meeting there. The Italianate style architecture of the building is unusual for this part of Maryland. An annex, attached in the rear was added in 1963.

Binghamton, New York

This is the fourth Broome County courthouse and the third on this site. Go-to Binghamton architect Isaac G. Perry provided the classical design as a replacement for its predecessor  that burned in 1896. Perry used Ohio sandstone trimmed with bluestone under a copper dome that rises from a central octagonal base. In front of the courthouse resides a statue of Daniel S. Dickinson, executed by A. G. Newman. In the Democratic National Convention of 1852 Dickinson refused the nomination of to be his party’s candidate to run for the Presidency out of loyalty to General Lewis Cass, to whom he was pledged.

Harrisburg, Pennsylvania

In the early 1900s, as the downtown area grew, many grand buildings were constructed to serve the
growing needs of the community, as well as local and state governments. One of those impressive
new structures, a cut-stone building, was designed in 1910 by prominent architect, Charles Lloyd,
to serve as Tech High School. In 1928, Harrisburg’s city government moved in and many dramatic
changes were made to make the interior as imposing as the facade. A grand staircase in the lobby,
offset by oak paneling, marble and brass accents and a cast plaster ceiling were a few of the unique
architectural details added. In 1982 the building was given new life when Historic Landmarks For
Living transformed it into a luxury loft apartment building.

Bethlehem, Pennsylvania

City Center was developed of granite and quartzite in 1967 and contains civic buildings, the Town Hall rotunda and town library. The Symbol of Progress  is 60 feet high and weighs 12,000 pounds. Joseph Greenberg of Philadelphia designed the sculpture to be representative of the diversity of Bethlehem’s people welded in the pursuit of progress. It is made of Bethlehem Mayari-R Steel. Also in the plaza, on the west side of the library, is a Japanese garden that was a gift to Bethlehem from its sister city in the Land of the Rising Sun, Tondabayashi.

Walterboro, South Carolina

In 1975 this building was remodeled with a Palladian facade of four Doric columns to compliment the courthouse across the street. The original structrue was completed in 1940 as A Depression-era project.

Newtown, Pennsylvania

The borough was splintered off from the township in 1838 and this Greek Revival building put into operation in 1858. It is said to be the oldest building in Pennsylvania still serving its original purpose as borough chambers. The small building did double duty until the 1940s, also serving as the town lock-up. Oddly, the first “guest” of the town was the mason who built the walls, incarcerated behind his own handiwork for pig stealing.

Ridgeway, South Carolina

This red brick building with Romanesque arches was the Town Hall when it was built in 1904. The courtroom was located upstairs and jail cells were in the back and can still be seen in the restaurant that operates in the building today. Over the years it has hosted many different businesses in addition to taking care of the town’s municipal needs.

Lewisburg, Pennsylvania

The original wing of the Greek Revival courthouse was built in 1856-57 with private funds pledged
during the movement to encourage the division of Union into Union and Snyder counties and the
election of a new county seat. Lewis Palmer was the designer and Henry Noll was the head carpenter.
The Greek Revival style, which drew inspiration from ancient Greek temples, is bold, formal and
simple. Popular throughout the 19th century, the Greek Revival style is well suited for churches,
schools, government buildings, and houses. Note the corner pilasters (flattened columns that stand
out in relief from the wall); imposing columns with Ionic capitals; and the classical triangular
pediment with Greek dentils above the capitals. A fine example of a cupola, with recently restored
copper roof, houses the bell donated by Simon Cameron, Secretary of War in President Lincoln’s
cabinet. The new complementary addition was to the Union County courthouse was completed in 1973.

Dover, Delaware

A much admired High Victorian municipal building from the 1870s was moved and later
demolished to make room in the early 1970s for this conceptually correct Colonial Revival structure
that would look at home in the Virginia Tidewater region.

Ligonier, Pennsylvania

This Colonial Revival government building replaced the historic Ligonier House on the Diamond in 1967.

Milford, Pennsylvania

E.S. Wolfe designed this building for the town government offices to greet a new century in a new building. He used indigenous bluestone, often seen around town not only in buildings but sidewalks as well. When built in 1899 the tower was capped with an open metal form to support the fire alarm bell.

Allentown, Pennsylvania

In need of a new building for city offices, the five-story City Hall, the three story Public Safety
building, and a three level parking deck were built (1963-1964) as part of the Allentown
Redevelopment civic center plan. The Redevelopment Authority cleared the area between 4th and
5th Streets of blighted and deteriorated buildings by purchasing and razing structures. On August
4, 1964, the first building permit was issued from the 435 Hamilton Street location.

City Hall houses the offices of the Mayor, City Council, City Clerk, and the main offices of
the Legal, Community and Economic Development, Administration and Finance, and Human
Resources Departments. The Public Safety building houses the Police Administration offices and
serves as headquarters for the Allentown Police Department.

Greenwich, Connecticut

The first Greenwich town meetings were held at irregular intervals in private homes and schoolhouses. A regular town meeting hall was built in the 1760s on Putnam Avenue near the site of the Second Congregational Church. During the Revolutionary War it was used as a guard house for the Greenwich Artillery Company and subsequently burned by the British. Back into private houses went the town council for decades until a new town building was constructed in 1836. After two score years the town business had outgrown the little space and began adjourning in public halls. The abandoned building, on the site of the Soldier’s Monument, was used as a jail for a short time but burned on October 15, 1874. Finally this Beaux Arts building, constructed on plans from Smith,W.J., Mowbray & Uffinger, was dedicated amidst great fanfare on October 19, 1905. Since the 1970s the Greenwich Arts Council has operated out of the former Greenwich Town Hall, as well as a senior center.

Bristol, Rhode Island

Bristol was in the original rota of five meeting places for the Rhode Island General Assembly. After the original state house on State Street became dilapidated the General Assembly ordered it sold. Warren jumped into the void in an attempt to wrest the county seat from Bristol but the town held on with the guarantee of this location on the Common. The new State House was ready by 1817. Its architect is unknown but often attributed to the town’s go-to architect of the era, Russell Warren. Two decades later a major redesign and expansion took place that covered the Federal-style bricks with stucco that was scored to resemble large stone blocks in the fashionable Greek Revival style of the day. The General Assembly retreated to only Newport and Providence in 1854 and the building continued in use as a courthouse. Trials continued here until the 1980s. In disuse and decaying the building was purchased  for a single dollar from the state by the Bristol Statehouse Foundation to restore and reuse the old state house as it approaches its bicentennial.

Cumberland, Maryland

Cumberland’s City Hall was built in 1911, one year after a fire completely destroyed the 19th-century city hall and Academy of Fine Arts at this site. The architectural firm of Holmboe and Lafferty created this two-story Neoclassical civic building of masonry construction. The building, which cost $87,000, was originally designed with a large two-story dome that was abandoned because of objections to its anticipated price. Local architect Wright Butler oversaw construction as contractor. The City Council held its first meeting in its new quarters March 25, 1912.

The exterior of the building is distinguished by fluted Doric pilasters that frame the main entry, a classical stone balustrade that runs along the top of the flat roof, and an irregular curved, recessed corner. City Hall is particularly significant for its intact interior, including marbleized stone pillars. One of the outstanding interior features is a large mural painted on the rotunda dome. Painted by artist Gertrude du Brau, the mural illustrates the early history of the city and features a depiction of George Washington’s military life. Today, the building still functions as Cumberland’s City Hall.

Meriden, Connecticut

The original Victorian Town Hall, where Abraham Lincoln delivered a campaign speech on March 7, 1860, was destroyed in a fire in 1904. This replacement was constructed from 1905 to 1907 in the Colonial Revival style that has remained popular for government office buildings built in the century since.

Pottstown, Pennsylvania

This one-time home to Pottstown’s government services was built in the Neoclassical style in 1924. The Opera House, which stood next door at one time, was the cultural heart of the town for many years.

Old Lyme, Connecticut

The existing Town Hall in the Colonial Revival style was dedicated on November 11, 1921. The old Town Hall was immediately to the north and was bought by the Masonic Lodge and moved to its present location at 20 Lyme Street. The building, constructed at a cost of $40,000, honors Old Lyme residents who served in America’s foreign wars.

New Bedford, Massachusetts

This Neoclassical brick and brownstone originally housed both the city offices and the public library. The cornerstone was laid in 1856. The building was enlarged in 1886 and again in 1906. The central elevator, installed in 1906, is the oldest operating elevator in the country. While the building still operates as the seat of city government, the library was moved across the street to its current location in 1910.

Millville, New Jersey

In 1882, when R. Pearsoll Smith was at the head of Whitall Tatum & Co., he donated $5,000 and loaned another $12,000 to create the Working Men’s Institute, a club where factory workers, it was hoped, would spend their off hours rather than in the temptations of saloons. The red brick building with a central clock tower could handle 300 people in its club room and offered a reading room, gymnasium and classrooms. The auditorium could seat 500 for lectures and stage plays.

In 1926 the building became Millville’s City Hall and performed that duty until 1970 when the government moved into its new digs on the site and the police department set up in the old Institute. The three-story mural on the north wall facing Main Street is a remembrance Of the Millville Army Air Field, “America’s First Defense Airport.” It opened in January 1943 as a gunnery school for fighter pilots and operated for three years.

Lancaster, Pennsylvania

Originally commissioned as “a public office house” in 1795, this three-and-one-half-story brick building laid in Flemish bond, is one of Lancaster’s most important Georgian structures. The building features decorative accents cut in stone, including arches, keystones and belt courses. The business of the Commonwealth was conducted here when Lancaster was the capital of the state from 1799 to 1812 and later served as Lancaster’s City Hall from 1854 until 1930. Now a museum and visitor center, it has also been used as a Masonic lodge meeting hall, a post office and a library. It is the oldest building on Penn Square.

Erie, Pennsylvania

The first Erie County court house, a small brick building that stood in the West Park, a little north of the soldiers’ and sailors’ monument [was completed] in 1808. In the early hours of Sunday morning, March 23, 1823, the court house was destroyed by fire, taking with it all the county records up to that time. The west wing of the current Erie County Court House dates to 1855, originally of late Greek Revival design. In 1929 the structure was entirely rebuilt and enlarged by Walter T. Monahan, Erie architect, to its present “U” plan, the west wing retaining the wall structure of the early building. Faced with gray, cut cast stone, its two similar Corinthian porticos with their tall fluted columns are monumentally impressive.

Ridgway, Pennsylvania

Two acres of land for the first Elk County Courthouse had been reserved during the Survey of 1833 as a town public square. The first courthouse was of wood frame construction and was completed in May 1845, most likely near the present courthouse. The Courthouse served as Elk County’s seat of justice for thirty-four years, by which time it was severely overburdened by the region’s growth. In early 1879, Commissioners Michael Weidert of Jones Township, W.H. Osterhout of Ridgway, and George Reuscher of St. Mary’s inspected the courthouses at Clarion, Warren, Tionesta, and Franklin, and decided the recently built courthouse at Warren, PA would suit their needs. They hired its architect and builder, J.P. Marston, to guide Elk County’s new Victorian courthouse.  It was finished in 1880.

In April 1879, the old courthouse was sold at an auction to Hugh McGeehin who moved it down Main Street and it became a part of the Bogert House, a hotel owned by McGeehin and P.F. Bogert. When a new Bogert House was built in 1906, the dining room was part of the former courtroom. Tragically the Bogert House was consumed by fire on January 28, 1990.

Derby, Connecticut

Derby’s government has operated out of an armory, an opera house, its own place and, since 2005, here in an old bank. More specifically the last headquarters of the Derby Savings Bank that opened with much fanfare in 1976.

Orangeburg, South Carolina

Orangeburg’s City Hall, City Jail, police headquarters and an auditorium, The Carolina, were all built in 1927 for $175,000 replacing the old, small, wooden City Hall. Not only did the auditorium serve as a venue for civic events and concerts, but it was also used as a theater by showing silent and “talking” movies until the early 1970s.

Berlin, Maryland

This building was first conveyed to the Mayor & City Council in 1922. It was later occupied by the Berlin Fire Company and American Legion Post #123 before coming back to the Mayor & City Council in 1965. Although its original integrity has been diminished by the altering of door and window openings and the removal of its corbelled cornice, it nevertheless is recognizable as an original component of the 19th century historic district.

Elizabeth, New Jersey

Today’s City Hall stands on the ground where the town’s first schoolhouse once stood and then the former Adelphian Academy. The government moved here in 1865 with an expansive building that provided room for a public market on the ground floor and a drill room for the militia. The current block-wide Colonial Revival brick buidling was designed by the firm of Eggers & Higgins in the 1930s.

Salisbury, Maryland

In February 1896 the Salisbury City Council purchased what was then known as the “Tracy lot” on West church Street for $1,000 from George C. Hill and in a July 4th ceremony that year the cornerstone was laid for the new City Hall and Firehouse. The municipal services building is one of the most distinctive public buildings erected during the late 19th century, designed by Thomas H. Mitchell, with its multi-faceted brick exterior accented with rusticated stone trim reflects Victorian eclecticism. An unusual, two-tiered pyramidal spire that incorporates babbled dormers as well as louvered vents distinguishes the four-story tower. The tower stands as the building’s signature architectural feature but it had a practical use as well. The interior of the tower above the first floor was left open so that hoses could be hung on racks to dry. The fire department left in 1928.

Bristol, Pennsylvania

The town Municipal Building was constructed in 1927, designed by Philadelphia architects Heacock & Hokanson and paid for by local industrialist Joseph R. Grundy.

Georgetown, Delaware

Formerly the site of a Tavern built in 1820 and called the “Rising Sun,” the brick structure was built in 1921 for the Delaware Trust Company. The building was donated to the Town in 1965 by Wilmington Trust Company.

Washington,D.C.

Old City Hall.

Hyattsville, Maryland

Completed in the summer of 1990, this structure was designed by Allen Sparber & Associates and
built under the supervision of College Park Contracting, Inc.  It houses nearly all of the City
offices, including the Police Department.

Georgetown, South Carolina

In 1841 fire destroyed the main Front Street businesses between Queen and Screven Streets. The old wooden market which had sustained severe damage in the hurricane of 1822, was torn down as a fire break. In 1842 the entire block, including the market, was rebuilt - this time in brick. The Greek Revival clock tower was added about 1845. Until recently, the town government met here. Today the Old Market Building houses the Rice Museum, dedicated to the lowcountry of the Carolinas, a region that supplied 50 percent of American rice in the 1800s. The story of rice culture comes to life through maps, dioramas, artifacts and exhibits. Woven into the story of rice is a description of how an agricultural area lives when dependent on only a single crop.

Aiken, South Carolina

Designed by architect Willis Irvin and built in 1938, the Municipal Building was extensively remodeled in 1987. This site has been occupied by several public buildings, including a brick police station and jail and an opera house where Will Rogers gave a benefit performance.

Charlestown, Massachusetts

Charlestown and “Market Square were laid out in 1629. The heart of the town, on this site, disappeared on June 17, 1775, as British cannon fired on the rebels at Breed’s Hill. It was felled again sixty years later by a fire that wiped out the square and the waterfront. City Square was transformed in 1868 with the construction of the massive Waverly Hotel, now gone and the a new City Hall (now the District Court).

Charlestown voted to join Boston and became part of Boston’s world. Several decades later, the famed elevated rail line, known as the El, was built and cut diagonally across the Square and right down Main Street in 1901. Noise, shadows, and the obstruction of the El supports detracted from City Square’s appeal.

With the opening of the Tobin Bridge in 1950, the area really fell on hard times. Bridge traffic emptied into City Square. Then, new overhead ramps were built on the Chelsea Street side of the Square and guaranteed that traffic no longer emptied into the Square but by-passed Charlestown altogether. Businesses failed and buildings emptied and were demolished or boarded up as the Square took on the appearance of a wasteland. Those days are gone now and City Square, revitalized by the “Big Dig,” soldiers on as an attractive one-acre park with lawns, plantings and sculptures.

The Charlestown Municipal Building dates to 1868; today it serves as a district court for the city of Boston.

Lowell, Massachusetts

The brawny Richardsonian Romanesque style was widely embraced for public building after the death of its creator, Boston architect Henry Hobson Richardson, in 1886. The craze lasted little more than a decade and in 1893 it resulted in three important Lowell buildings - the post office on Appleton Street, Memorial Hall behind City Hall and City Hall itself. Executed in light gray granite, the building features a tower and corner turrets.

Meadville, Pennsylvania

A courthouse and jail were built here in 1820; still the site of the Crawford County Courthouse. A Second Empire Style Courthouse was built late in the 1800s only to be expanded and encased in a Georgian Revival Style building in the 1950s.

Camden, New Jersey

This light gray granite skyscraper is the tallest building in Camden and, at some 371 feet, the tallest building in the Philadelphia metro area outside the city itself. The modified Grecian design is the work of Camden architects Byron Edwards and Alfred Green, Camden architects. From the main building of five stories rises a slender 17-story tower, narrowing at the top into open work resembling the neck of a bottle. On the tower is a huge new clock in place of those that have ornamented Camden's city halls since 1876.

Warwick, Rhode Island

William R. Walker & Son, the go-to architectural firm for civic buildings in Rhode Island in the late 1800s, tapped several different styles for this distinctive town hall in 1893. Its dominant feature is the six-story Colonial Revival square clock tower with a domed belfry. Classical influences can be seen in the Ionic columns. The terra cotta date badge is indicative of the use of varying materials during the Victorian age. It cost $75,000 to replace the 1834-35 Town House that stood here previously.