Old City Hall Revisited

 

What with my attention drawn to postcards with the release of the book this week. I thought I'd feature this post from four years ago.  I've always like this card, with this circa 1908 view of the old city hall.  It still had its bell tower and was a city landmark and a source of civic pride.

 

This postcard of the old city hall/fire station predates the expansion of city government and the necessity for more office space.  By 1917, the old city hall had become cramped and the city purchased the old First National Bank building.  This was not the stately columned ediface, but rather the original bank to the west.  The next year, the police department moved out of city hall to a property just west of the Menasha City hall.  After these moves, the old city hall was used by the Fire Department and the Common Council until 1963.  In that year, the First National Bank building constructed in 1917 (the columned one) was purchased by the city and merged with the older building next door, as the bank was building its new facility across Main Street from the Bank of Menasha.  Combined, the two buildings now housed city offices and the council chambers.  The old city hall remained in use by the Fire Department until the 1970s and eventually was demolished in the 1980s.