The Construction Of City Hall
The
building of a new City Hall was undertaken during one of Oswego's most prosperous
periods in history; the Civil War had stimulated an unprecedented economic boom
for the port city as many new avenues of trade were opened and transportation
systems were improved. In addition to the optomistic economic indicators, the
city had grown to nearly twenty-one thousand by 1870, nearly doubling it's size
in twenty years. Not only had the city outgrown its original seat of government,
The Market House (now called "Old City Hall"), but a new building that was more
representative of the city's standing was considered necessary-. By May of 1869 the City Hall Building Committee, with newly elected Mayor Alanson Sumner Page as it's chairman, had secured both the land and the financing for the building, and issued an advertisement calling for prospective architectural designs. Three local architects submitted plans: Zina D. Stevens, from Oswego, Andrew Jackson Warner, from Rochester, and Horatio Nelson White of Syracuse. On August 30, 1869, the comittee decided to adopt White's plan contingent on a couple of minor alterations. On October 18, 1869, in an Executive Session of the Common Council, it was resolved that the construction contract would be given to Seeber and Brothers of Oswego, for the lowest bid of sixty six thousand, two hundred and eighty four dollars. By the end of February, the building comittee was busy negotiating City Hall bonds for the financing of the project.
After months of excavation, laying of the foundation and other preliminary work, the Cornerstone was laid with much fanfare in a ceremony on June 21, 1870. Construction proceeded quickly throughout 1870, and by October it was reported that the mansard roof could be put on. In early June of 1871, all City offices were relocated up the hill to the new building. Although the interior work was not completed, the rooms were sufficiently finished to permit occupancy. The basement offices were all furnished and the first story rooms were scheduled to be completed in a few days. Those of the second story were months away from completion and the police cells required much work. On December 6, 1871 the exterior was completed. During the first few months City Hall had several problems. Several of the rooms were found inconvenient in some way and a significant number of changes had to be made. The most significant of these was the relocation of all of the City Police offices to the basement. To this end, on December 21, The office of the Tax Collector moved to the first floor, and the Police Court and Office of the Police Chief moved to the basement. The vacated Police Court room was assigned to the Fire Council. One other minor change involved the construction of a railing in the second floor Board of Education room. By the middle of 1872, all alterations had been completed, and the building was hailed by the Common Council as "a building of the most substantial character; the materials and workmanship throughout are of the finest quality, and this committee believes that it will endure as an ornament to our city for many years to come, if not for ages."
did you know?…
- That an early plan for City Hall's location was the North-East corner of Washington Square (East Park)? Some Aldermen of the time believed that the East side of the City would soon surpass the West in population and taxable property, thereby making a Washington Square a more central and convenient location.- That the Recorder’s Court (now the City Police Court) was relocated from the first floor to the basement in part because " …the rabble which are upon attendance at the police court each morning go tramping through the main entrance of the City Hall as well as the halls of the building in a manner not at all satisfactory to the occupants of the adjoining rooms…"