Saco City Hall stands in the middle of Main Street among all the downtown shops and restaurants. The hall has large stone steps leading to the entrance, and also a steeple with a bell and a large clock. When I visited the town hall to take pictures and look at the detail of the building it was a Sunday so the town hall was closed. I drive by it everyday though, and it always seems very quiet and I never see a lot of people entering it or leaving it. Even though I have not noticed a lot of traffic around city hall it is still a big part of the community. It houses all of the information for the city like any other town hall, the city also makes a point to provide lots of activities for the youth of Saco such as the Pumpkinfest and the decorating of the holiday tree. The mayor as well as the city council have also been very active in making Saco a Main Street community and a preserve America community. I think that the growing age of technology has also contributed to the lack of people that need to take their business right to City Hall. When visiting the City Hall website you can search for answers to many questions as well as obtain forms and mail them in or submit them electronially.HISTORICAL BACKGROUND:
The City Hall is the center of the town, and has been since its completion in 1856. In 1950 a comprehensive history of the town hall was written as part of the Saco annual report inaugural address. It states that the cost of the original building was 19,950 dollars. This original building did not inlcude the clock tower or the present entrance. Throughout the late 1850's and 1860's the building was used for all town functions as well as the municipal court. In the 1870's there began to be complaints of overcrowding in the town hall and by 1880 the city had voted to add an addition to the hall. The total cost of this addition which included the present clock tower came to $6,930.76 . The biggest event to hit City Hall was the fire of 1895. It occured at 11:30 p.m. and a passerby noticed the smoke and called the fire department. unfortunately the fire engine that Saco had could not put out the flames, so they called in the Biddeford Fire Department who took a very long time to arrive due to a miscommunication. It took the entire Biddeford Fire Department and most of the Saco Fire Department to finally put out the fire. The fire happened in March and City Hall was closed until October with a total cost of $5,347.53. Most of the building was damaged and to this day the most original part of the building is the auditorium.
Overall Saco City Hall has had lots of excitement in the almost 150 years that is has been around. City Hall is important to the town of Saco as well as the State of Maine because it holds historical facts about one of the earliest settled towns in Maine. Without the creation of City Hall a lot of information from the early Saco settlement would be lost.
