In the late 1800s, Scranton’s municipal government offices were located throughout the city.
By 1888 — 22 years after the city’s incorporation — the current municipal building was constructed on the corner of Washington Avenue and Mulberry Street.
Today, Scranton celebrated another milestone at the 137-year-old Ohio sandstone building with the full restoration of the Victorian Gothic structure’s exterior.
"A thousand things, many thousands of things had to go right for us to get to this moment," said Scranton Mayor Paige Cognetti.
The $4.8 million restoration project was funded by state and local dollars, including a $1.5 million Pennsylvania’s Redevelopment Assistance Capital Program (RACP) grant and from Scranton’s share of $68.7 million in federal American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA) funding.
"It's unreal that we were able to do it. The money just hit at the right time," said Gerald Smurl, Scranton City Council president.
Cognetti and Smurl were flanked Tuesday by other city officials and representatives from the local companies who worked on the project. Cognetti cut a piece of yellow caution tape with big scissors. Scaffolding covered the one-of-a-kind building in the city for the last 14 months. Last week, it started coming down. Crews hauled away the last of the protective fences on Tuesday.
"We're very excited. I think it shows the power of what many different levels of funding can do, and what expertise and the building trades can do, and what great project management here at the city is capable of," said Cognetti.
Road to restoration
Back in 2019, then-Mayor Bill Courtright and his administration were trying to figure out what to do with city hall. The last major renovation took place in 1980. The city was fixing issues in the building as they popped up with no real path forward. Pigeons were living in the tower.
Scranton City Council and Courtright were given a $10 million estimate to restore the building. The officials weren’t sure how they would pay for that. They considered selling the building and relocating the city offices to the PenFed Credit Union building on Franklin Avenue. But there wasn’t enough support for that plan.
Cognetti was elected in a special election in December 2019 and sworn into office that January. City hall became her administration’s problem. Then the COVID-19 pandemic happened, and city hall offices were closed.
A RACP application was already in. Congress passed ARPA to help the country recover from the pandemic, money hitting at the right time.
“It wasn't local dollars, certainly a lot of elbow grease here at City Hall, but in terms of the actual dollars, state and federal made this possible.”
Smurl, who was appointed to the council in December 2022, is glad the city was able to save the building.
“A lot of people were concerned that we'd put too much money into this building, and it wouldn't, it really wasn't worth it. But I disagree. You're not going to build something like this today. This will never happen again," he said.
Early days to today
The original plan was to build the city's municipal building in North Scranton. In 1887, Mayor Erza Ripple signed legislation to acquire the land on Washington and Mulberry.
Edwin L. Walter from Prompton, Wayne County, was hired as the architect. The estimated cost in 1888 to construct the building was $125,000 — about $3.9 million today. A.E. Hunt’s House had to be moved to Adams Avenue to accommodate the build, according to a newspaper article from Jan. 24, 1888.
The Electric City was just converting to electricity. Gas and gasoline street lamps were replaced with electric, Ripple said in his message to city council in January 1888. Crews had to get the house around the new electrical lines.
At a time when many buildings in Scranton were lost to fires, city hall was often touted as fireproof.
How the building served administrations and residents has changed a lot through the decades.
Smurl remembers when the city’s police force was headquartered in the basement.
"The cells are still there. We do keep files and stuff in there because it's secure," he said.
Smurl’s father worked for the city, and he remembers when the building was packed. Parking was impossible within blocks of city hall, he said.
"You couldn't get stuff done. It was just so jammed," he said.
The police department moved out of the building about 20 years ago.
‘Done properly’
Dunmore Roofing was the general contractor for the restoration project. Crews repointed mortar around the entire building, restored slate roof tiles and parts of the original built-in copper gutter system, among other projects.
"We didn't patch, you didn't just cover up. This was all pulled out, redone and done properly.”
On March 7, the building’s tower was lit for the first time in around four decades. Crews installed green floodlights for the city’s annual St. Patrick’s Day Parade. The color of the light cast on the new frosted glass can be changed to recognize other holidays and events throughout the year, according to the city.
The words "municipal building" will be repainted. Interior restoration is still underway. Kasmark Stained Glass is working to restore the building’s iconic stained-glass windows.
Cognetti said they’re working to make the building more accessible.
"There's an excitement around it again, proof that local government can do things. It's proof that we have a great team here. We have great tradespeople all over our area to be able to do a project like this. So I think it instills confidence. It beautifies the city, and it shows the progress that we're making toward the future," she said.
City hall is open Monday to Friday from 8 a.m. to 4:30 p.m.
