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.