As I mentioned not too long ago, Troy did once have a magnificent City Hall. It was located at the corner of Third and State, where Barker Park is today, across from St. Paul's and Pfeil's Hardware. At the time I had only a drawing, but now have found a magnificent glass negative photograph that purports to be from 1905. Like many glass negatives, it is absolutely full of stunning details. Here is the bell tower, which proudly proclaims it to be City Hall, and dates it to 1875. (It actually didn't open until October, 1876.)
On the State Street stairs, a dapper gent featuring a straw boater peers out.
Just east on State Street, the Hotel Lovelock, which prominently offered Piel Bros. Real German Beer (German by way of Brooklyn, that is), and offered "All The Comfort's of Home," proving that our forebears were not free of struggles with the apostrophe.
Across Third Street, our photographer (for the Detroit Publishing Company, whose importance in the preservation of historic views across the country cannot be overstated) captured these ladies, waiting.
Want the whole photo from the Library of Congress, in all its magnificence? After the jump:
Today's City Hall, which is supposed to be temporary, should be ashamed to even call itself a building, compared to the wonder that once housed the Collar City's civic affairs.
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