Quincy, Massachusetts

About 200 years after settlement and 50 years after incorporating as a town, the residents finally voted to build a townhouse in 1841. The two-story Greek Revival government building, with its gable facing onto the street, was completed in 1844.

Architect Solomon Willard naturally used native blue-grey granite in its construction. Willard had designed the Bunker Hill Monument two decades earlier and it was his decision to use hefty blocks of Quincy granite that triggered the stone quarrying boom around town. Willard provided the new town hall with exacting granite details, including an entry through fluted Ionic pilasters. Perhaps because its citizens waited so long for a town hall when a more expansive City Hall was required just 40 years later rather than tear down the building - as was the general practice around the country - it was retained and altered.

Mclntyre Mall, adjacent to City Hall, was constructed in 1981 and named in honor of police Captain William F. McIntyre, father of James R. McIntyre, who was Mayor of the City of Quincy from 1965 to 1971. On November 3, 1985, City Hall was designated the James R. McIntyre Government Center.