Manchester City Hall - Manchester, NH
Posted by: 
silverquill
N 42° 59.455 W 071° 27.809
19T E 299171 N 4762751
City Hall was designed by Boston architect Edward Shaw in the Gothic Revival style and built in 1845 the year before incorporation of the city of Manchester, New Hampshire.
Waymark Code: WM2QJK
Location: New Hampshire, United States
Date Posted: 12/08/2007
Views: 173
Manchester’s first town hall was built on this spot in 1841. It was a simple wooden building with a cupola. The top floor contained an armory for the local militia. Unfortunately, a wayward spark ignited the gunpowder, causing the building to burn to the ground in 1844.
Not surprisingly, soon after this Manchester purchased its first two fire engines. The town also hired Edward Shaw, a Boston architect, to design a bigger and better town hall. This building was completed in 1845, just in time for Manchester’s incorporation as a city in 1846.
The once small village had grown into a bustling city of over 10,000 people.
Manchester City Hall was designed in the Gothic Revival style, complete with buttresses and arched windows. This style was often used for churches and academic buildings, but was seldom been seen in government buildings. If you enter City Hall and head toward the Annex, you will see “Art on the Wall”, avenue that allows local artists to display their work.
City Hall is open Monday through Friday, from 8:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. Art work is always for sale, and the artists change every two or three months.
JOHN STARK - "Live free, or die!"
In front of the Annex (the former Hillsborough County Court House) is a sculpture of Manchester resident and Revolutionary War hero Brigadier General John Stark. John Stark penned the phrase “Live Free or Die – Death is not the worst of evils,” which was adopted as New Hampshire’s state motto in 1945.