75 Years Ago Newtown’s Landmark Town Hall Was Rising On The Main Street Landscape

By Jan Howard

Edmond Town Hall has been the center of community events for almost 75 years. In 1930, when construction was completed, it was considered a state-of-the-art facility.

The town hall was one of the many gifts the Town of Newtown received from its benefactress, Mary Elizabeth Hawley, who planned the building with her financial advisor, Arthur Treat Nettleton, and financed its construction by a gift of $750,000. She also set up a trust fund of $250,000 for maintenance of the building.

Edmond Town Hall was designed in Georgian colonial style and embellished with marble, Tiffany silver, and brass chandeliers.

It contained offices for the town clerk and probate court, a courtroom, and meeting rooms. It also included recreational and social facilities, including a bowling alley, gymnasium, a theater that would seat 675 people with the capability to show sound films, and a ballroom with a kitchen and stage. A post office occupied the area where the first selectman’s office is currently located.

The town hall was named for Miss Hawley’s maternal great-grandfather, Judge William Edmond, a native of Waterbury. Born in 1755, Judge Edmond fought in the Revolutionary War action at Ridgefield following Tryon’s raid on Danbury. He came to Newtown to practice law in 1782, was a member of Congress from 1791 to 1801, and judge of the Superior Court until his death in 1819.

In November 1928, a contract for construction of Edmond Town Hall was awarded to the H. Wales Lines Company of Meriden. The architect was Philip Sunderland.

Before groundbreaking for the new town hall could take place, however, the old firehouse, which had previously served as a town garage and jail, had to be moved. Also, early in 1929, the process of dismantling the old town hall was begun to make way for the new. Once the old town hall had been taken down, excavation began for the new town hall’s foundation after which work on the brickwork began.

On May 1, 1929, officials and townspeople gathered on a chilly, rainy day to watch Miss Hawley place a trowel full of cement on the bricks that would hold the cornerstone, one of her last official acts. Unfortunately, she would not live to see the building completed.

The contents of the box in the cornerstone contained a copper plate with the names of Miss Hawley, and those of the architects, committee members, and builders. Also included was a Bible, a picture and biographical note about William Edmond, pictures of Mary Hawley and members of her family and of Arthur Treat Nettleton, picture of Hawley School, Johnson’s history of Newtown, Farmers’ Almanac, list of officers of Newtown, coins, liberty loan literature, copies of The Newtown Bee and The New York Times, pictures of the old town hall and churches, 1929 calendar, and many more commemorative items.

By late 1929, Edmond Town Hall was beginning to take on its recognizable shape. At that time, Miss Hawley had become ill. While everyone hoped she would live to see the building completed, it was not to be.

On September 20, 1929, The Newtown Bee reported that the work on the new Edmond Town Hall “is advancing in satisfactory fashion. W.P. Doyle, the capable and genial superintendent for the H. Wales Lines Company, of Meriden, says that the great structure is more than half completed. The outside brickwork is finished, the ornamental marble trimming is in place and the roof is partly completed. From 75 to 80 men are now engaged on the structure.”

The paper further noted that Mr Boyle expected the town hall would be completed somewhere about June 1. The former J.A. Carlson residence was being torn down and by the time The Bee reached its readers that week, the house was a thing of the past.

On March 7, 1930, The Bee reported that the new town hall was four-fifths completed and on May 2 it was nearing completion.

Miss Hawley did not live to see the opening of Edmond Town Hall or the theater that she had looked forward to attending. She died on May 11, 1930, three months before the scheduled town hall dedication. The first talking picture was shown on August 15, 1930.

As Miss Hawley’s funeral cortege slowly made its way to the village cemetery, the bell in the town hall steeple tolled for the first time.

“A notable event in Newtown’s history,” The Bee reported, took place during a “joyous occasion” on August 22, 1930, when Mr Nettleton, one of the executors of the will of Miss Hawley, presented the deed of the Edmond Town Hall to Selectmen Thomas F. Brew, Frederick R. Lake, and Arthur J. Page.

The Bee noted, it was “the finest town hall and recreational building in the state.”

A Board of Managers, elected for six-year terms, is charged with the management, supervision, and maintenance of Edmond Town Hall. A manager oversees maintenance of the building and manages the theater.

The town hall has gone through some changes through the years because of the need for additional office space.

In 1950, an addition was built on the south side at a cost of $50,000, paid for by the income from the endowment from Miss Hawley and operation of the motion picture theater.

The building is currently undergoing additional changes. An elevator project, recently approved by the Board of Managers, consists of construction of a new elevator and walkway adjacent to the restored marble terrace on the north side of the town hall to provide accessibility for the disabled. This work would bring the building into compliance with guidelines of the Americans with Disabilities Act and the Connecticut Building Code. The project also includes installation of an emergency generator in the rear parking lot and repaving of the entrance driveway. The architect is Alan Black Architects of Newtown.

The first phase of the construction will be a temporary ADA accessible ramp at the front of the building to permit access while construction work is in progress.

The project has a budget of $1.5 million, $1 million from the town that was appropriated in 2001 and $500,000 from a Small Cities Grant from the state.

(Some of the information for this story was taken from Newtown Connecticut Past and Present and Newtown Connecticut Directions & Images by the Newtown League of Women Voters, Newtown Ye History by Mae Schmidle, and Town Historian Dan Cruson’s Images of America books, Newtown and Newtown 1900–1960.)