The former Detroit City Hall once stood at the site of the One Kennedy Square

One Kennedy Square

One Kennedy Square is a 10-story building at 777 Woodward Avenue, near Campus Martius Park in downtown Detroit, Michigan. The building stands on the site of the old Detroit City Hall. It is occupied by the Ernst & Young accounting firm. Construction on this mid-rise started in 2005 and was...

 building in downtown Detroit, Michigan

Michigan

Michigan is a U.S. state located in the Great Lakes Region of the United States of America. The name Michigan is the French form of the Ojibwa word mishigamaa, meaning "large water" or "large lake"....

. The former city hall building was constructed in 1861, and finished in 1871. It was demolished in 1961. It stood at 5 stories in height, 4 above-ground, and one basement floor. It was built by Alexander Chapoton of one of the city's oldest French families. The Queen Anne style Alexander Chapoton House

Alexander Chapoton House

The Alexander Chapoton House is a Queen Anne style row house located at 511 Beaubien Street in Detroit, Michigan. It was listed on the National Register of Historic Places and designated a Michigan State Historic Site in 1980.- Alexander Chapoton :...

 (c. 1870) still stands at 511 Beaubien.

The building's former location is along Campus Martius Park

Campus Martius Park

Campus Martius Park is a re-established park in downtown Detroit, Michigan. After the fire of 1805, Campus Martius was the focal point of judge Augustus Woodward's plans to rebuild the city. It is where the "point of origin" of Detroit's coordinate system is located...

, and was bordered by Griswold Street to the west, Michigan Avenue

Street name

A street name or odonym is an identifying name given to a street. The street name usually forms part of the address...

 to the north, West Fort Street

Fort Street

Fort Street may refer to:*Fort Street, North Point, Hong Kong Island, Hong Kong*Fort Street , a Michigan highway*Fort Street High School, Sydney, New South Wales, Australia*Fort Street Mall, Downtown Honolulu, Hawaiij...

 to the south, and Woodward Avenue to the east.

Design

The Detroit City Hall was designed in the Renaissance revival architectural style (styled in a jumble of Renaissance styles including that of the French

France

The French Republic , The French Republic , The French Republic , (commonly known as France , is a unitary semi-presidential republic in Western Europe with several overseas territories and islands located on other continents and in the Indian, Pacific, and Atlantic oceans. Metropolitan France...

 and Italian

Italy

Italy , officially the Italian Republic languages]] under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Italy's official name is as follows:;;;;;;;;), is a unitary parliamentary republic in South-Central Europe. To the north it borders France, Switzerland, Austria and...

), and was built with mainly stone

Rock (geology)

In geology, rock or stone is a naturally occurring solid aggregate of minerals and/or mineraloids.The Earth's outer solid layer, the lithosphere, is made of rock. In general rocks are of three types, namely, igneous, sedimentary, and metamorphic...

. The building took 10 years to complete, mostly due to restrictions of material during the Civil War

American Civil War

The American Civil War was a civil war fought in the United States of America. In response to the election of Abraham Lincoln as President of the United States, 11 southern slave states declared their secession from the United States and formed the Confederate States of America ; the other 25...

, but much had to do with city politicians fighting over the bids and contracts. The tower was reportedly built very poorly, and was plagued by problems its entire existence.

The building featured sculptures of Fr. Gabriel Richard

Gabriel Richard

Father Gabriel Richard was a French Roman Catholic priest who became a Delegate from Michigan Territory to the U.S. House of Representatives....

, Antoine Cadillac, Fr. Jacques Marquette

Jacques Marquette

Father Jacques Marquette S.J. , sometimes known as Père Marquette, was a French Jesuit missionary who founded Michigan's first European settlement, Sault Ste. Marie, and later founded St. Ignace, Michigan...

 and Sieur de LaSalle created by Julius T. Melchers and John Donaldson. When the building was demolished the statues were saved and moved to the campus of Wayne State University

Wayne State University

Wayne State University is a public research university located in Detroit, Michigan, United States, in the city's Midtown Cultural Center Historic District. Founded in 1868, WSU consists of 13 schools and colleges offering more than 400 major subject areas to over 32,000 graduate and...

.

The clock tower itself featured four, 14-foot stone maidens on its cornice representing justice

Justice

Justice is a concept of moral rightness based on ethics, rationality, law, natural law, religion, or equity, along with the punishment of the breach of said ethics; justice is the act of being just and/or fair.-Concept of justice:...

, industry

Industry

Industry refers to the production of an economic good or service within an economy.-Industrial sectors:There are four key industrial economic sectors: the primary sector, largely raw material extraction industries such as mining and farming; the secondary sector, involving refining, construction,...

, art

Art

Art is the product or process of deliberately arranging items in a way that influences and affects one or more of the senses, emotions, and intellect....

 and commerce

Commerce

While business refers to the value-creating activities of an organization for profit, commerce means the whole system of an economy that constitutes an environment for business. The system includes legal, economic, political, social, cultural, and technological systems that are in operation in any...

.

External links

• Google Maps location of the Vintonn Building
• Old Detroit City Hall at Emporis
  Emporis
  Emporis GmbH is a real estate data mining company with headquarters in Frankfurt, Germany. The company collects and publishes data and photographs of buildings worldwide....
  
  .com
• Old Detroit City Hall at SkyscraperPage.com