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.