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As the population of Wilkes-Barre grew during the latter half of the 1800s and a decade after the borough was incorporated as a city, officials needed a new and bigger city building to replace a smaller structure on Butler Street.

The city’s Public Property Committee searched city- and privately-owned proprieties around Public Square finally deciding in 1892 on the location along East Market Street between North Washington and North Fell streets. North Fell Street is now called State Street.

The land once was Wilkesbarre borough’s graveyard where Revolutionary War officers Capt. Joseph Davis and Lt. William Jones were buried after they were killed by Native Americans during the 1779 Sullivan Expedition. The graveyard was across from the old Luzerne County jail that stood along East Market Street where several public hangings took place in the early 1800s.

When bodies from the graveyard were relocated to Hollenback Cemetery on North River Street, the borough took ownership of the land.

In 1880, Civil War veteran Col. Jedidiah Chase Paine leased the land to construct a warehouse and office at $25 per year for five years, according to the Wilkes-Barre Daily Union-Leader newspaper on March 24, 1880. Under the lease, the city had the right to terminate the lease and remove the building, which happened in 1890, when the city divided the land into individual plots to sell.

Two years later, March 15, 1892, city council passed an ordinance repealing the 1890 ordinance to divide and sell plots at East Market and Washington streets as the Public Property Committee recommended the location for the new city building.

City council made construction of City Hall official on Nov. 8, 1892, accepting plans by Wilkes-Barre based architect Benjamin Davey Jr. and selecting P. R. Raife as the contractor at a total cost of $75,880, according to The Daily Times newspaper in Wilkes-Barre on Nov. 18, 1892.

Drawings and descriptions of each floor of City Hall were published in Wilkes-Barre newspapers in August 1892.

Ground was broken on April 3, 1893, with the first cart of dirt loaded by Chris Stegmaier, R. W. Williams and Al Farrel, reported the Wilkes-Barre Record on April 4, 1893.

“It appears to be a common remark that the front entrance of the new city hall on East Market Street looks too small,” reported the Wilkes-Barre Record on July 26, 1893.

As construction continued, bid proposals were published in newspapers seeking plumbing and electrical contractors. One proposal published in the Wilkes-Barre Times on Dec. 2, 1893 called for materials and installation of ‘Speaking Tubes.”

Max Wolf, 36, a bricklayer from Plymouth, was killed when he fell down the elevator shaft from the top floor on Oct. 6, 1893. The Wilkes-Barre Evening News reported Wolf lost his footing while pushing a wheel barrel filled with bricks over wood planks extending over the top of the elevator shaft.

Wolf’s family received $16.50 to pay for burial costs, the Evening News reported Oct. 14, 1893.

Construction of City Hall continued through 1894.

City Clerk Frank Deitrick was the first to relocate from the tiny structure on Butler Street to City Hall on Jan. 8, 1895. Mayor Francis M. Nichols moved into the first floor mayor’s office on Jan. 21, 1895.

Three turrets atop City Hall were removed in August and September 1956.

“City officials decided on removal of the three towers after inspections of the cupolas disclosed they were in dangerous condition and presented a hazard to passerby. The towers were part of the original construction when the municipal building was erected in 1894 but had not been utilized in recent years,” the Times Leader Evening News reported Aug. 27, 1956.

City council in 1976 studied plans to construct a new City Hall at Public Square and East Market Street at a cost of $2.3 million when the downtown area was being revitalized following the 1972 Agnes Flood. Council scrapped those plans in 1978.

Plans of Wilkes-Barre City Hall prior to construction. Drawing published in the Wilkes-Barre News newspaper Aug. 13, 1892.
https://www.timesleader.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/07/web1_City-Hall-WB-News-08131992.jpg.optimal.jpgPlans of Wilkes-Barre City Hall prior to construction. Drawing published in the Wilkes-Barre News newspaper Aug. 13, 1892.

Wilkes-Barre City Hall unknown date.
https://www.timesleader.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/07/web1_City-Hall-pic-1930s.jpg.optimal.jpgWilkes-Barre City Hall unknown date.

By Ed Lewis

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