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| Old City Hall covered
a whole city block. Five stories high, it was a massive
stone structure, asymmetrical in design, filled with
curling cornices, rounded pillars, marble walls,
smiling cherubs, overhanging, gargoyles, and the
big clock tower to the left of the main entrance,
which topped it off like a gigantic misplaced birthday
candle. |
Above
the arched front entryway, the words MUNICIPAL
BUILDINGS hidden among a swirling band of curlicues
and bows, denoted its initial use … the
architect, Edward James Lennox, who supervised
building the Hall in the late nineteenth century,
had filled it inside and out with strange and
eerie stone faces.
Near the end of his commission,
Lennox got into a fight with the city aldermen.
As a parting shot, he had caricatures sculpted
of his enemies - fat-faced men, men with overhanging
mustaches, men chomping on cigars, each face
contorted in some strange way. |
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They
were discovered only years later, and by then
it was too late to change them. And the only
sculpture that wasn't humorous was the one
Lennox had done of himself. He also had his
name carved on the stone corbels beneath the
eaves. Kennicott admired a mat who could make
a mark in such a subtle, and lasting, fashion.
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