MONROE — Beth Stucker remembers bounding up the steps of City Hall at age 6 on her way to the town’s library upstairs.
At age 74, she still visits the squat building on Main Street, but now she spends her time in a history museum downstairs as president of the historical society.
The building that once served as the nerve center of the city still stands a century after its construction, a relic of a different time with its brick face and dental millwork. The Monroe Historical Society plans to celebrate the building’s centennial with a birthday cake and tours Saturday.
In 1908, the mayor proposed building a city hall, paid for by a $200-a-year hike in saloon license fees. Nine months later, the 6,000-square-foot building was complete and the $7,000 cost already paid.
“No need for permits,” Stucker said. “They didn’t get bids. They just did it.”
At one time, the City Hall building held the library, city council chambers, courthouse, fire and police departments.
For years it was the place people came to settle city bills, collect war ration stamps, testify in court and, occasionally, cool off in one of two iron-bar holding cells downstairs. School children still marvel at those cells on tours. In the early years, a small room upstairs served as a resting spot for farmers’ wives and their babies during visits to town.
As the decades passed, the city departments left one after another for bigger, modern offices. Until 1982, staff still ran the city’s business from the building.
The historical society purchased the building in 1992 and later paid it off with a $100,000 donation from a historical society member.
Today, a Tae Kwon Do school is upstairs and an antique store and the museum occupy the downstairs. The museum sits in the space that used to hold the fire department’s horse-drawn water tanks. The jail cells hold boxes of records and photos.
The society wants to renovate the building, but it will likely cost more than $400,000, Stucker said. While old City Hall was built “like the rock of Gibraltar,” the guts of the building need an update, she said. The decrepit boiler labors to pump out enough heat. The building has plumbing from who-knows-when.
Makeshift walls slice up the old fire hall into pieces. The society wants to open up the garage so they can park a historic 1940s Mack fire truck inside.
Reporter Debra Smith: 425-339-3197 or dsmith@heraldnet.com.
Help celebrate the City Hall centenial
The Monroe Historical Society invites the community to celebrate the centennial of the 1908 Monroe City Hall Building, 207 E. Main St., at two events.
Eat some birthday cake at the historical museum located on the bottom floor of city hall or tour the building, including the jail, 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. Saturday.
The society’s quarterly membership meeting will include a presentation on the building’s history at 6:30 p.m. Dec. 16 at the Tualco Grange, 18933 Tualco Road, Monroe. A potluck dinner and birthday cake will be served, followed by the presentation at 7 p.m. Please bring a dish to share and your own plates.
Monroe residents who worked in the building will also be invited to both events to share their memories. The free events are open to the public and all ages are welcome.
Call 360-793-0636 or go to www.monroehistoricalsociety.org.
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