From STAMFORD GOVERNMENT CENTER
Dedication
A Brief History of the Town Halls of Stamford, CT
by Estelle Feinstein and Renee Kahn
on the occasion of the dedication of the Stamford Government Center [about 1986]


The twentieth century had arrived; the United States was taking its place among the Great Powers; and Stamford was a thriving city of 19,000. It could not remain long without a government center. The next year [1905] architects Edgar Josselyn and Nathan Mellen were called on to design a town hall for the new era. In Beaux Arts style, the new building, now universally known and loved as "the Old Town Hall,” was placed diagonally on the site of the traditional center of the community. Limestone-faced and topped with a massive clock tower, the two-and-a-half story structure provided space for the mayor, a growing list of city officials and a mountain of records. At one point its basement even served as the local jailhouse.