When the first town hall was dedicated on May 2, 1825 the price tag for the two-story building was $9,017.90. When this Italian Renaissance city hall was opened to great fanfare on April 28, 1898 the final cost was $625,000. Worcester had come a long way through the 19th century. Distinguished artist and architect Richard Morris Hunt was engaged to oversee the project but he died and his son Richard Howland Hunt shepherded the building to completion. Faced with grey Milford granite, the magnificent Florentine capanile tower is 205 feet high, modeled on the Palazzo Vecchio. A bronze star set in the sidewalk marks the spot where, on July 14, 1776, Isaiah Thomas read the Declaration of Independence for the first time to a New England audience from the steps of the Old South Meeting House.