The Fitchburg City Hall was dedicated on January 7, 1853 to replace an aging structure built 60 years earlier on Upper Common. The town appropriated $20,000 for the land, construction and furnishings but all the bids came in higher than that amount. Rather than go over budget, as might be the accepted course today, one of the members of the building committee, Colonel Ivers Phillips, resigned and assembled his own team of local craftsman to do the job. The two-story Italianate brick building picked up an additional four stories in the rear in 1879. A major renovation in the 1960s kept the slender Italianate windows and ornamental window hoods but added the Ionic pilasters and general Greek Revival appearance. Surrounding buildings were not so lucky; all of City Hall’s 19th century neighbors have been leveled leaving it as an island in the cityscape.
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