The new mayor is looking for a new City Hall. We once had a real City Hall.

Currently, we are outshined by the one in Schenectady, built in 1931 in the late Georgian Revival style, by McKim, Mead, and White who made the style popular in the late 19th century. Albany’s grand Romanesque-style City Hall, designed by then America’s greatest architect Henry Hobson Richardson was completed in 1883. Cohoes’ 1895 Romanesque Revival City Hall was designed by Architect J.C. Holland. The limestone structure was the first building constructed with public funds.

Even Watervliet’s modest 1915 City Hall, built by Troy architects Demers, Mosley and Campaigne, beats out Troy’s use of the old Cluett & Peabody shirt and collar factory.

Troy’s first real City Hall was part of the 1845 Troy Savings Bank Athenaeum building on First Street, now a parking lot next to the old Troy Hotel. They held meetings previously elsewhere but called this one home. On May 7, 1869, the “City-Hall Company of the City of Troy” authorized a committee to locate and purchase a site to build a new city hall.

The original capital was increased so the Troy Savings Bank could contribute from their funds to provide rooms in the new........

© The Saratogian