Buffalo, New York

The cornerstone for one of America’s most massive and costliest municipal buildings was laid on May 14, 1930. It was completed, almost seven million dollars later, in time to commemorate the city’s Centennial on July 1, 1932. Architect John J. Wade provided the plans for the 28-story Art Deco masterwork that stood as Buffalo’s tallest building for almost four decades. Wade infused every corner of the City Hall colossus with a reminder of Buffalo from the central sandstone entrance frieze with pioneers and Iroquois Indian motifs to historic murals to statues of iconic figures. The brightly colored tiles at the top of the tower suggest a flame-like crown that represent the energetic sun burst in the flag of the City. The building was designed with large vents on the exterior to catch winds of Lake Erie to cool the interior without electricity.

Norwich, Connecticut

In the nearly 140 years since City Hall opened the exuberant Second Empire building is largely unaltered. Local architect Evan Burdick provided the dramatic design with red bricks on a cut granite base; he was also the designer of the Broadway Congregational Church, the Wauregan Hotel and several other town structures. The final price tag for City Hall, completed after three years of construction in 1873, was $250,000. The four-sided clock tower was added in 1909. In the basement are dreary dungeon-like cells, harkening back to the days when the police department was located there.

New London, Connecticut

The city government has operated here for over 150 years. The original building was an Italianate-style brownstone that fit in nicely with the residential nature of State Street in 1856. By the early 1900s the City thought it desirable to establish a more monumental presence as the neighborhood commercialized. In 1912 James Sweeney was called in to deliver a Renaissance Revival exterior to the Municipal Building which he accomplished with a rusticated base, a quartet of Corinthian columns, some pediments over the windows and a matching classical balustrade and low surrounding wall.

Brooklyn, New York

Born as City Hall for then decade-old Brooklyn in 1845, Borough Hall was designed by Gamaliel King who did architecture in his spare time. By trade he was a grocer and carpenter. King had actually been the runner-up in the 1835 competition to design City Hall to Calvin Pollard, a busy and prominent New York architect. A national Depression in 1837 scuttled building plans and by the time work resumed Pollard was elsewhere. King retained much of Pollard's Greek Revival design although today the original architect is completely forgotten - by ill luck not one of his New York buildings survives. The center cupola was added in 1898, the year Brooklyn was consolidated into New York City.

Annapolis, Maryland

The Anne Arundel County Courthouse is the third oldest courthouse still in use in Maryland.
Begun in 1821 and completed in 1824, the earliest portion of the courthouse was built to provide
a safe repository for County records and meeting rooms for the County Court and its officials,
a use that has continued to this day. Several expansions followed. Architecturally, the 1892-95
alterations and additions to the courthouse still define its overall character. Designed by Jackson C.
Gott, an important Baltimore architect, the alterations dramatically transformed the appearance of
the restrained, almost flat Federal Style building into a more graceful, three-dimensional Georgian
Revival structure, featuring the prominent entrance tower, corner pavilions and the second floor
courtroom.

Conway, South Carolina

In 1906 Col. D.A. Spivey introduced in the General Assembly the Act authorizing the construction of the Horry County Courthouse. The building committee was composed of C.P. Quattlebaum, John C. Spivey and John P. Durham. The formal opening was held in 1908, with Governor Martin F. Ansel as speaker. The building, crowned with an octagonal cupola topped by a finial with eagle weathervane, underwent renovation in 1937 and 1964. A portrait of Revolutionary War Colonel Peter Horry, for whom the county was named, hangs in the front hall, given by the local DAR chapter.

Windsor, Connecticut

The Georgian Revival Town Hall displays many of the hallmarks of the style - symmetry, corner quoins, balustrades and a center hall plan. It opened in 1966.