Cambridge, Massachusetts City Hall
Encyclopedia
City hall
In local government, a city hall, town hall or a municipal building or civic centre, is the chief administrative building of a city...
for Cambridge, Massachusetts
Cambridge, Massachusetts
Cambridge is a city in Middlesex County, Massachusetts, United States, in the Greater Boston area. It was named in honor of the University of Cambridge in England, an important center of the Puritan theology embraced by the town's founders. Cambridge is home to two of the world's most prominent...
, located at 795 Massachusetts Avenue, and built in the Richardsonian Romanesque
Richardsonian Romanesque
Richardsonian Romanesque is a style of Romanesque Revival architecture named after architect Henry Hobson Richardson, whose masterpiece is Trinity Church, Boston , designated a National Historic Landmark...
style. The building additionally serves as a centerpiece of the surrounding City Hall Historic District and adjacent Central Square Historic District
Central Square (Cambridge)
Central Square is an area in Cambridge, Massachusetts centered on the junction of Massachusetts Avenue, Prospect Street and Western Avenue. , formed by the junction of Massachusetts Avenue, Columbia Street, Sidney Street and Main Street, is also considered a part of the Central Square area...
.
History
The hall was built between 1888–1889, and was largely funded through a donation from Frederick Hastings RindgeFrederick Hastings Rindge
Frederick Hastings Rindge was an American businessman, philanthropist, and writer, of Los Angeles, California. He was a major benefactor to his home town of Cambridge, Massachusetts.-Early life:...
. The architects were Longfellow, Alden & Harlow
Longfellow, Alden & Harlow
Longfellow, Alden & Harlow , of Boston, Massachusetts, and Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, was the architectural firm of Alexander Wadsworth Longfellow, Jr. , Frank Ellis Alden , and Alfred Branch Harlow . The firm, successors to H. H...
(Alexander Wadsworth Longfellow, Jr.
Alexander Wadsworth Longfellow, Jr.
Alexander Wadsworth Longfellow, Jr. was an American architect and nephew of poet Henry Wadsworth Longfellow.-Biography:...
, 1854–1934; Frank E. Alden, 1859–1908; and Alfred B. Harlow, 1857–1927). The building is three stories tall, with a bell tower that rises to 158 feet. Load-bearing stone walls are of Milford granite
Milford granite (Massachusetts)
Milford granite is a Proterozoic igneous rock located in and around the town of Milford, Massachusetts, covering an area of approximately 100 sq km, as mapped by the USGS. It is described as a light-gray to pale orange-pink biotite granite. The biotite is typically in clots or short streaks...
trimmed with Longmeadow brownstone.
Cambridge City Hall houses offices for the city council, the city manager and several municipal departments. In addition to the main building, the city of Cambridge also houses several other departments a couple of city blocks away in the City Hall Annex, located at Broadway and Inman Street.
On May 17, 2004, shortly after midnight, the first legal applications in the United States for marriage licenses for same-sex couples were issued at Cambridge City Hall. At 9:15 a.m. that day, the Cambridge City Clerk began solemnizing same-sex marriages. See same-sex marriage in Massachusetts
Same-sex marriage in Massachusetts
Same-sex marriage in the U.S. state of Massachusetts began on May 17, 2004, as a result of the Supreme Judicial Court of Massachusetts ruling in Goodridge v. Department of Public Health that it was unconstitutional under the Massachusetts constitution to allow only heterosexual couples to marry...
.