City Hall (Manchester, New Hampshire)

United States historic place

Manchester City Hall

U.S. National Register of Historic Places

View of City Hall from Elm Street, 2013.

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Location| 908 Elm St., Manchester, New Hampshire
Coordinates| 42°59′28″N 71°27′50″W﻿ / ﻿42.99111°N 71.46389°W﻿ / 42.99111; -71.46389
Area| 0.1 acres (0.040 ha)
Built| 1844 (1844)
Architect| Edward Shaw
Architectural style| Gothic Revival
NRHP reference No.| 75000233[1]
Added to NRHP| June 13, 1975

The City Hall of Manchester, New Hampshire, is located at 908 Elm Street, the city's principal commercial thoroughfare. The brick-and-granite three-story structure was built in 1844-45 to a design by Boston architect Edward Shaw, and is a prominent early example of the Gothic Revival style in a civic building. It was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1975.[1]

## Description and history

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Manchester's City Hall is the second building of that name, the first having been built on the same site in 1841, and burned in 1844. It is prominently set in the middle of the downtown, on the west side of Elm Street at its junction with Hanover Street. It is three stories in height, built out of brick with granite trim. It presents a five-bay facade to Elm Street and a three-bay facade to Market Street (now closed off as City Hall Plaza). The center of the three-bay facade projects slightly and rises in a tower two more stories above the building. The bays of the building and its corners are articulated by false buttresses, which rise to squat octagonal columns above the roof edge. Each bay has several narrow Gothic windows rising through the second and third floors. The tower has a clock with multiple faces on its main stage above the roof, which is ringed by a crenellated balustrade and octagonal columns. The top stage consists of an open lantern structure with Gothic openings and pinnacles.[2]

The hall was designed by Edward Shaw, a New Hampshire-born architect based in Boston, Massachusetts. Shaw is best known for a number of publications for builders, some of which received wide circulation. When first built, the Elm Street facade was taken up by retail space on the ground floor (in a style emulating the previous city hall which stood on the site), with city offices above; the main entrance was then through the base of the tower. In 1895 the city took over the entire ground floor, moving the main entry to the center bay on Elm Street.[2] The building entrance has since been relocated back to the tower.

## Gallery of works

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* The original town hall, built in 1841 and burned in 1844. From an engraving published in 1852.

* Manchester City Hall as it appeared in 1852.

* Manchester City Hall as it appeared at the beginning of the twentieth century.

* View of Manchester City Hall from City Hall Plaza in 2012.

## See also

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* National Register of Historic Places listings in Hillsborough County, New Hampshire

## References

[edit]

1. ^ a b "National Register Information System". National Register of Historic Places. National Park Service. July 9, 2010.
2. ^ a b "NRHP nomination for Manchester City Hall". National Park Service. Retrieved 2014-05-25.

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National Register of Historic Places in Hillsborough County, New Hampshire

Landmarks|

* Franklin Pierce Homestead
* MacDowell Colony

Districts|

* Amherst Village Historic District
* Bennington Village Historic District
* Contoocook Mills Industrial District
* District A
* District B
* District C
* District D
* District E
* The Flint Estate
* Francestown Town Hall and Academy and Town Common Historic District
* Goffstown Main Street Historic District
* Hancock Village Historic District
* Hollis Village Historic District
* Lyndeborough Center Historic District
* Nashua Gummed and Coated Paper Company Historic District
* Nashua Manufacturing Company Historic District
* Nashville Historic District
* New Ipswich Center Village Historic District
* Old County Road South Historic District
* Sainte Marie Roman Catholic Church Parish Historic District
* Victory Park Historic District

Buildings|

| Commercial|

* Athens Building
* Birchwood Inn
* Dunlap Building
* Harrington-Smith Block
* Old Post Office Block
* Parker's Store
* T. L. Thorpe Building †

|

Education|

* Ash Street School
* Brick Schoolhouse
* Building at 418–420 Notre Dame Ave.
* Currier Gallery of Art
* Goffstown High School
* Goffstown Public Library
* Grasmere Schoolhouse No. 9 and Town Hall
* Hills Memorial Library
* Hunt Memorial Library
* North Weare Schoolhouse
* Pelham Library and Memorial Building
* St. George's School and Convent
* Varney School
* Weston Observatory
* Wilton Public and Gregg Free Library

Government|

* Bedford Town Hall
* Citizens' Hall
* Hillsborough County Courthouse
* Manchester City Hall
* Milford Town House and Library Annex
* New Hampshire State Union Armory
* New Ipswich Town Hall
* Peterborough Town House
* Temple Town Hall
* US Post Office-Peterborough Main
* Weare Town House
* Wilton Town Hall

Industrial|

* Daniel Cragin Mill
* Hillsborough Mills
* Hoyt Shoe Factory
* Kimball Brothers Shoe Factory
* Milford Cotton and Woolen Manufacturing Company
* Mine Falls Gatehouse

Religious|

* All Saints Church
* Bedford Presbyterian Church
* Francestown Meetinghouse
* Goffstown Congregational Church
* Greenfield Meeting House
* Peterborough Unitarian Church
* Union Chapel

Residential/
Agriculture|

* Abbot House
* Jonathan Barnes House
* Barrett House
* Carpenter and Bean Block
* Frank Pierce Carpenter House
* Amos Chase House and Mill
* Alpheus Gay House
* Hamblet-Putnam-Frye House
* Kennedy Hill Farm
* Hill–Lassonde House
* Hills House
* Thomas Russell Hubbard House
* Killicut-Way House
* Lamson Farm
* McClure-Hilton House
* The Meetinghouse
* Marion Nichols Summer Home
* William Peabody House
* G.O. Sanders House
* Signer's House and Matthew Thornton Cemetery
* Gov. John Butler Smith House
* Smith and Dow Block
* Smyth Tower
* Stonyfield Farm
* Gen. George Stark House
* Gen. John Stark House
* William Parker Straw House
* Sullivan House
* Roger Sullivan House
* Oliver Whiting Homestead
* Caleb Whittaker Place
* Levi Woodbury Homestead
* Zimmerman House

Sites|

* New England Glassworks Site
* Stark Park
* Valley Cemetery

Structures|

* County Farm Bridge
* Goffstown Covered Railroad Bridge
* Hancock–Greenfield Bridge
* Hillsborough Railroad Bridge
* Milford Suspension Bridge

Footnotes|

† This entry has been removed from the registry.

See also: National Register of Historic Places listings in Hillsborough County, New Hampshire and List of National Historic Landmarks in New Hampshire
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