Chillicothe's City Hall

City Hall undergoing renovations in 1956. This photo includes a white outline of the current City Hall.

(I wrote this a while back, but never posted it. Now that City Council is talking about options for City Hall, I thought I should go ahead and post it. I apologize for the photo quality. I took them with my phone from pages in the actual newspaper.)

Chillicothe is one of the oldest and most historic cities in Ohio, serving two terms as the state capital. And that makes some of the decisions that have been made here very perplexing.

In this blog Chillicothe’s City Hall will serve as an example of what I’m referring to.

 Laid out in 1796, by 1803 Chillicothe was the capital of Ohio – the 17^th state of the United States. It was a place of high importance in state government. Ross County had a courthouse, which sat on the county-owned Public Square (pretty much the same location of today’s Ross County Courthouse). When Ohio became a state and Chillicothe its capital, the little county courthouse became the State Capital Building. That nice little stone building was torn down after the capital was moved to Columbus (See what I mean about decisions? Who really thought that was a good idea?).

Chillicothe, however, despite having been a city for some time, never had a true “city hall.” The only structures the city owned were a firehouse or two. Instead of shelling out the money for their own building, city government would either use space at the firehouse, or simply rent a room or two somewhere for the mayor and the solicitor - rooms that when needed would also serve as City Council Chambers.

That finally changed in 1875.

 

 

In 1874, Mayor E.K. Mick wrote a letter to City Council and recommended that the city finally break down and fund construction of an actual City Hall. He suggested that the lot being used as the city’s Public Market would fit the bill, and that perhaps some of the market’s existing structure could be used. It was, he said, an “eye-sore” and was “seldom used.” The Public Market was located on the west side of South Paint Street, where City Hall is today.

Unfortunately the land on which the Public Market was located had been deeded for use by the city by a local family, with the stipulation that it be used as a public market. The city decided it had the right to construct a city hall there, and there was some legal back and forth. The descendants of the family that had originally donated the land refused to settle for less than the $2,200 penalty that was attached to a violation of the deed.   

The Scioto Gazette backed the idea of a city hall.

“Thank Heaven some good can come out of Nazareth. If the present council will but manage to secure for our city as desirable a change as this, we will not promise to forgive them all their shortcomings, but will agree to be very charitable in our conclusions as regards their actions.”

Ouch! It seems that 138 years ago the Gazette was a little harder on city government than they are now.

The Gazette also wrote that the “den” currently being used as council chambers and the mayor’s office was better suited for a “barber shop” and would be “a disgrace to a town of (just) 500 (people).” In their opinion it was “unsightly” and “miserable” and, they wrote, if just six people showed up for a meeting it was a “packed house.” If the mayor chose to attend a council meeting, then he was “compelled to occupy the ante-room and stick his head through the intervening doorway.”

The Gazette appears to have been correct: A Dr. Lansing refused re-nomination to council, on the advice of his personal doctor, who claimed that his life would be in danger if he was forced to sit through a two hour meeting in the current council chambers.

Throughout the summer of 1874 a newly created standing committee (Public Buildings and Parks), with the help of the city solicitor and engineer, laid plans and solicited bids. As an aside, Councilman Poland insisted the structure include space for a public library.

By late August work began with the removal of the front part of the Public Market. The cornerstone for City Hall was laid in September.

The contract – in the amount of $18,003 – was awarded to Wm. H. McCoy of Marietta, while the design was by local architect John Cook.

According to a Gazette article dated May 19, 1875, the building itself was 45 feet wide and 100 feet long, and had two front entrances – one to the north and one to the south. The Mayor’s office (a spacious 21 feet wide and 45 feet long) was on lower floor in the right front corner (north). Police HQ occupied the entire back (west) end of the building. An addition/extension at the rear of the building was to be used as the city jail. Also at the rear along the alley another part of the skeleton of the market house was roofed and closed in for storage, and would also house the city’s scales. On the 2^nd floor above mayor’s office was the City Library. It had 18 foot ceilings and black walnut shelving for its 5,500 books. There were tables, chairs, and even spittoons. Council Chambers were also on second floor, on the west end (behind the library).

The first City Hall was a beautiful, magnificent building, with class and character. Each floor (or story) was 20 feet high and there was also a 16 foot unfinished attic. Topping the structure off was a bell tower, in which hung the old city bell. Sadly (but perhaps not surprisingly), it was poorly maintained and by the mid-1950s, just 80 years after it was constructed, parts of it were crumbling.

On May 21, 1954 – a month after some gutter, slate, and sheet metal fell onto the sidewalk below - the Municipal Court part of City Hall was condemned by the state building inspector and the state’s deputy fire marshal. However, for nearly two years nothing came of the condemnation.

The court was finally padlocked on February 11, 1956, and space for the court was rented in the Carlisle Building. It operated there until the remodel of City Hall was completed.

Council was originally told that $60,000 would cover the remodel, which included a westerly expansion, relocation of stairs, some fireproofing, new heat and air, and the overall lowering of the structure. As a matter of fact today’s City Hall is some 30 feet shorter than it was before being remodeled. Amazingly, the total height of the current structure barely reaches the top of the original second floor windows. The attic was completely removed, and the height of both the first and second floors was lowered.

The remodeled City Hall was supposed to include a “copper topped” bell tower for the old city bell. However, not only is there not a copper topped bell tower, but the old city bell was never installed and at some point in time it went missing. The bell was originally in the Second Presbyterian Church at the NE corner of S. Paint and Fifth streets. The church folded in 1875 and became the Clough Opera House, which burned on Easter Sunday in 1890.   

The original $60,000 estimate increased steadily and by the time the contract was awarded it was over $100,000, making it a remodel that cost at least five times the original cost of construction, for a significantly smaller and plainer structure. In the end the city would get less and it would cost taxpayers more.

Despite the fact that there was some debris that did fall from the cupola (bell tower), the original structure might not have been in as bad a shape as it was thought. One of the reasons the Municipal Courtroom was condemned by the state was that the floor appeared to be sagging. However, during the remodel, when the floor was exposed, it was found that the timbers were still in excellent shape (as solid as the day they were put in, according to workmen). As a matter of fact, the timbers were cut out and sold to a builder in Athens for use in a commercial building there. Perhaps with a few small structural improvements the magnificent old City Hall didn’t need such a drastic remodel after all.

But it’s too late for that now. Now we can only wonder what this version of City Council will manage to do with the City Hall we have.

The photo above is of city officials in the original council chambers, looking at items in the building that were deemed necessary to save. A representative from the Ross County Historical Society led the tour and identified items of historical importance.