A Tale of Five Halls

The Clocktower in Victoria Park

If you’re old enough to remember Kitchener’s old city hall, which stood on Frederick street, and we asked you how many city halls Kitchener has seen, you’d probably answer: “two”. And you’d be right. Except… not really. Our current city hall at King and Gaukel makes 1. The old city hall that stood on Frederick would make 2. What about the so-called Oxlea Tower? It was home to the city’s offices for 20 years, until they were moved to their current building. And what about before the old city hall on Frederick? And what about the one before that? Altogether, we can count five Halls in Kitchener’s history (city, town, or otherwise). We’d better start at the beginning.



Hall 1 - Berlin’s Stadthalle

In April of 1858, only four years after being incorporated as a village, the elected council of Berlin (modern day Kitchener) made use of their first Stadthalle (German for City Hall). At the time, the village was facing financial difficulty. Unable to raise enough money to construct a proper Town Hall, the former Free Church building was converted for the city’s use. The Reeve (village equivalent of a mayor) at the time was Israel Bowman, and during his term in office council chambers resided on the upstairs floor while the ground floor doubled as a fire station. The following year saw even more constraints on the village’s coffers, so the Reeve and all members of the council did a gentlemanly thing, and opted to not be paid for their services.



Hall 2 - Kitchener’s Old Town Hall

The Old Town Hall
(Courtesy of Corporate Records & Archives Services of the City of Kitchener)

Ten years later, in 1869, Berlin was seeing better times, so council offered a tender of $10,000 for the construction of a new Hall. One year later, the newly incorporated town of Berlin was the proud owner of a brand new Town Hall at the corner of King and Frederick. The hall housed the town’s first public library, a post office, and a large ballroom. A second building at the back was constructed to house the farmer’s market. To fill an abundance of space, the basement was rented out to a butcher shop. “Forget your lunch today, Your Worship? We’ve got you covered.”

By 1898, the once proud Town Hall had seen better days. After some badly needed repairs the Hall was given a clean bill of health for another five years. Those repairs would have brought the Town Hall to 1903, yet plans for a new municipal building weren’t approved until Ocotber 18, 1922. This disparity was a little puzzling, but Hilda Sturm, the administrator of Kitchener’s Corporate Records & Archives, was gracious enough to share a few pictures that indicate the Town Hall was still in use even in 1909. Perhaps there were more repairs and renovations after the first bout in 1898.



Hall 3 - Kitchener’s Old City Hall

The Old City Hall with Christmas Lights
(K-W Record, December 24, 1971)

The plans for the next Hall were designed by former mayor W.H.E. Schmalz and B.A. Jones. The clock-tower which rested atop the Old City Hall was nearly left out of the final plans due to cost.

The day after plans were approved for the new Hall, Council put out a call for tenders. After only one week a $253k contract was awarded to P.H. Secord & Sons, based out of Brantford, for the construction of the Old City Hall.

Ground was broken at King and Frederick only 45 days after the plans were approved. The Hall’s cornerstone was laid with much fanfare some months later, on July 7, 1923, by Mayor L.O. Breithaupt. Alderman L.E. Hagerdorn, the chairman of the building committee read a statement that day - a copy of which was saved in a time capsule within the cornerstone. Other items saved in the time capsule included: a copy of the Mayor’s remarks; a map of the city; a photograph of the groundbreaking; facts of Kitchener from the Board of Trade; lists of councils, committees and other public bodies; an assortment of coins and bills; and a copy of the Daily Record.

On November 15, 1924, only 25 months after plans were approved (and eight months behind schedule), the construction of Kitchener’s first City Hall was completed. The building was opened by the Lt. Governer of Ontario, the Honourable Henry Cockshutt, along with municipal officials from across Ontario. Twenty-thousand people in all showed up for the building’s inauguration which was celebrated with musical performances by the Kitchener Musical Society band, and dancing until midnight.

The Old City Hall was designed to last for 50 years, but in June 1959 at the tender age of 35 it was in need of a slight overhaul. The city’s police department had its offices in the basement, but as the city was growing it was decided to move the police offices across the street to free up space for other municipal departments. Dunker Construction Co. was contracted for a $24k renovation which included: turning the former police department into offices for the Welfare and Relief department; the installation of new signage; converting the old cell block into an office canteen; and insulating the old constable’s quarters in preparation for housing some noisy tabulating machines (link).

On November 23, 1967 the Old City Hall took a big leap forward from tabulating machines into the age of computers. On that day, the Old City Hall welcomed a brand new computer. The 3500 lb machine, costing the city $3000/month to rent from IBM, was person-sized and had to be wheeled up a ramp covering the Hall’s front steps to gain entry. The mammoth machine required a staff of six, and was to save the city money and work-hours. Some uses for the new computer would included: processing some 50,000 election postcards in 10 hours (a task that would normally take 500 working hours to complete, at a cost of $750); and the recording of 45,000 tax bills in 8 hours (normally completed in about 3 weeks).



Hall 4 - Oxlea Tower

Disassembly of the Old City Hall's Clocktower - Oxlea Tower in Background
(K-W Record)

By 1972 the Old City Hall was nearing the half-century mark, and it was early that year that a municipal scandal, trying to solve the problem of an out-of-date City Hall, surfaced. As the city grew outward, many worried the city’s downtown core was loosing its edge. In an effort to turn the tides in favour of the city’s downtown, top Kitchener officials made a deal behind closed doors – neither the city council or the city’s planning board had any idea.

The $15M deal outlined the sale to Oxlea Investments Ltd. of: Old City Hall; the adjacent farmer’s market; the park in front of Old City Hall; and the parking lot across the street. In exchange, Oxlea would build what would come to be known as Kitchener’s Market square: a four-storey department store (which they would lease to Eaton’s) as well as an additional 50k ft2 of indoor malls on the land sold to them and surrounding land already owned by Oxlea. Oxlea would also construct a 10-storey office building on the site of the Old City Hall’s parking lot, the major tenant of which would be the city for a $195k/year rent at a minimum of 15 years. Lastly, a $2.5M parking garage would be constructed next to Eaton’s, and would be leased for $50k/year to the city to operate it for 20 years.

When the plan was revealed to council for approval, the gathering became so unruly that police had to be summoned to the council chambers to maintain order. One prominent group of citizens fighting against this deal was the Citizen’s Committee for a Better County core. They were able to persuade the chairman of the Ontario Municipal Board, J.A. Kennedy, to order a plebiscite with the 1972 municipal elections. Results came in at 15,689 for the deal, 11,513 against, which prompted the Citizen’s Committee to launch an unsuccessful appeal to the Ontario Court of Appeals.

With the Oxlea deal set, the city began preparations for its big move from the Old City Hall to its new digs in the so-called Oxlea Tower at 22 Frederick street. The move took a single day – starting at 2pm on Friday, September 21, 1973 and finishing at midnight. As an interesting side-note, Oxlea Tower was only ever a nickname for the building, which was listed as 22 Frederick until 1986, when the official moniker was changed to Market Square Office Tower.



Hall 5 - Kitchener’s Current City Hall

Current City Hall

The mid to late 1970’s saw some expression of interest in the building of a new City Hall (even one that might accommodate the entire region’s governing bodies), but it wasn’t until 1989 that plans began to solidify. In May of that year, after a lengthy two hour debate, the city council voted 9-2 in favour of a $46.6M plan for a City Hall and civic center on a site bordered by King, Duke College and Young.

The design for the new City Hall and civic centre was the result of a national architectural design competition. The winning plans were produced by Bruce Kuwabara of Kuwabara, Payne, McKenna, Blumberg – a Toronto firm which also had a hand in designing Toronto’s Sky dome (now Roger’s Centre).

Groundbreaking for the new home of Kitchener’s municipal offices was two years late, at 1pm on June 1, 1991. The historic occasion was accompanied by a town portrait and a signature collection to be put in a time capsule.

About two years later, over the course of a warm August weekend in 1993, the city’s offices were relocated from their home of 20 years at 22 Frederick, to the new City Hall at King and Gaukel. The new City Hall was officially opened on September 18, 1993. A few months later, in March, the $65M City Hall was thrown a big $500k party in honour of its opening.

Our current Hall not only looks modern, but was designed with some fairly innovative technologies. One example of this was the inclusion of a cutting-edge cogeneration electrical system. The generator, running on natural gas, was expected to cut electricity bills by 25% and was produced in part by a grant from the Ontario Ministry of Energy to be part of a research project into the technology. The system also boasted an efficiency of 30% greater than that of Ontario Hydro’s generators, and it was hoped that what waste heat it did produce could be used to heat the buildings in the winter months. Sadly, the generator did not produce as much heat as was expected. The city was unable to find a buyer for its excess electricity, and all the repairs required to keep it running effectively mothballed the cogenerator.

And there you have it. Five Halls spanning 153 years, from 1858 to 2011; a population growth from under 10,000 to over 200,000; and growth in project cost from a mere $10,000 to $46.6M.


SOURCES

Courtesy of the Kitchener Public Library’s Grace Schmidt Room of Local History



Aagaard C. (Jun 9, 1997). Clock tower creator has idea for columns. K-W Record.

Bear W.J. (Oct 20, 1973). Editorial. K-W Record.

Hamara G. (May 24, 1989). 9-2 vote clinches plan for city hall. K-W Record.

Hawthorne K. (Aug 21, 1993). It's moving weekend for Kitchener city hall. K-W Record.

Jalsevac P. (May 30, 1985). New city hall could be part of face lift. K-W Record.

Koch H. (Oct 1, 1988). Wanted: Entrepeneur to build replica of city hall. K-W Record.

Moyer B. (Apr 18, 1980). Yesterday revisited. K-W Record.

Schuck P. (Jul 3, 1995). Old city hall clock tower ticks to life. K-W Record.

Thompson C. (Dec 14, 1994). Kitchener city hall has innovative way to cut fuel bills. K-W Record.

Thompson C. (Dec 23, 1994). Unions, college team up to aid clock tower project. K-W Record.

Wilson T. (Feb 22, 1964). K-W Record.



Bid to move Kitchener clock tower rejected. (Dec 2, 1983). K-W Record.

Call for entry. (1996). Kitchener City Pamphlet.

Cash sought to relocate clock tower. (Apr 4, 1973). K-W Record.

City hall awaits 'operation' to ease crowding problem. (Apr 29, 1959). K-W Record.

City hall bell tolls no more. (Aug 21, 1971). K-W Record.

City hall move begins next week. (Aug 14, 1993). K-W Record.

City hall's computer to be a whiz. (Nov 23, 1967). K-W Record.

City hall weddings commence today. (Sep 9, 1994). K-W Record.

City offices to be moved in a year. (Apr 19, 1972). K-W Record.

Ground level clock value is questioned. (Mar 20, 1973). K-W Record.

Historical documents sealed into the city hall cornerstone. (June 26, 1971). K-W Record.

Kitchener city hall power plant turns into $500,000 junk. (Aug 31, 2000). K-W Record.

Kitchener come celebrate. (1993). booklet. The Fairway Group Inc.

Kitchener wants region to share new city hall. (Feb 11, 1975). K-W Record.

New city hall plan shelved. (Feb 25, 1964). K-W Record.

News release: City hall move. (Sep 20, 1973). K-W Record.

Oxlea it isn't. (May 20, 1989). K-W Record.

Pamphlet (Aug, 1973). Kitchener Chamber of Commerce.

Public notice. (Oct 11, 1989). City of Kitchener.

Renewal hope strengthens bid for city hall. (May 28, 1986).  K-W Record.

Retailer, shoppers like clocktower plan. (Mar 28, 1983). K-W Record.

Starts ticking. Old clocktower may be headed for downtown. (Mar 15, 1983). K-W Record.

The $15 million deal few Kitchener citizens knew about. (Feb 7, 1972). Globe & Mail.

Toronto firm to design Kitchener's new city hall. (Oct 17, 1989). Globe & Mail.

Tresspass ban angers teen. (Jul 22, 1994). K-W Record.

Week-long bash to mark opening of new city hall. (Mar 2, 1993). K-W Record