City Hall – Santa Maria CA

Description

Santa Maria City Hall is a lovely example of Mission Revival architecture, which includes a tower, a walled courtyard and blue tile work in the entrance corridor. It was designed by local architects Louis Noiré Crawford and Francis Parsons.  Gaylord Jones custom built furniture for the city council chamber.

The building cost $68,000 and funding came from the Public Works Administration (PWA) of the New Deal. The Works Progress Administration (WPA) worked on the grounds of city hall in 1935, spending $13,600.

There is a cornerstone with the date of construction, an historical landmark plaque by the city and a public storyboard of the history of city hall.  Only the landmark plaque mentions PWA funding.  The building appears to be in excellent condition, but we lack further information about the interior.

In 1939, Short & Stanley-Brown observed that:

“The new city hall centralizes the municipal departments and houses the council, the engineering department, the city court, jail, police and fire departments. The plan is irregular in shape, approximately 94 x 187 feet, and contains 17,200 square feet of usable floor area.  All of the exterior and bearing walls are reinforced concrete. The roof is wood-truss construction and is covered with handmade mission tile. The building is designed to resist adequately normal earthquake shocks.”