City Hall – Houston TX

Description

“During the Depression, plans for constructing the City Hall were temporarily sidetracked. In 1933, however, the City applied for a federal Public Works Administration grant to help finance the construction of a new City Hall. Straw votes on building a new City Hall were taken in 1933, 1934 and 1935, In 1934 voters rejected a proposition to build the City Hall, but also voted that if one were to be built, it should be put on the Civic Center site rather than at Market Square. On August 8, 1937, the City Hall W.P.A. [sic] grant was approved…

In October 1937 the City Commissioners awarded the City Hall architectural contract to Joseph Finger. Finger, an Austrian-born architect, had designed the William Penn Hotel, the Montgomery County Courthouse in Conroe and the Temple Beth Israel, among other buildings…

Construction began on March 7, 1938. The cornerstone was laid on October 1, 1938. A time capsule was placed in the cornerstone, containing a Bible, copies of the City charter, Houston’s three daily newspapers and the City Auditor’s report for 1937. The construction job took 20 months. Work was finished in July 1939. The work was done by 100% A.F. of L. union labor. Wages on the job site ranged from 40 cents an hour to 1.85 an hour. An estimated 800,000 hours of labor were expended on the job.

The Mayor and City Commissioners moved from the old City Hall to the new one on December 3, 1939.”   (https://www.houstontx.gov)