Built in 1890, just six years after the construction of Butte's first city hall, this building is an indicator of how fast Butte was growing at that time. Much larger and much more extravagant than the
previous city hall, it is also an indicator of the great wealth pouring into the city in that era. Probably ten times the size of the first city hall, this three storey Richardsonian Romanesque structure contained the police department, jail and fire department, as did the earlier city hall.
With a much longer tenure than its predecessor, this city hall remained in use as a city hall until 1977, at which time city and county governments were amalgamated, with all departments thereafter housed in the Silver Bow County Courthouse.
At one front corner of the brick and stone building is a tall, five story clock tower, the clock within manufactured at the turn of the century in Boston by the E. Howard Clock Co. It has faces on all four sides of the tower, each one round, the faces black with white Roman numerals. We noticed that the clock faces are lighted from outside by small floodlights for night viewing (or viewing during solar eclipses).
In 2004, well after the clock was 100 years old it
underwent repairs, which cost around $5,000. That story can be read below.
Clock repair takes a little time
Work on 100-year-old timepiece at old City Hall getting there, not yet fixed
By Curtis Wackerle of The Montana Standard | Jul 27, 2004
The 100-year-old clock that towers above the old City Hall building in Uptown Butte has proven more difficult to repair than first thought, the men charged with fixing the old timepiece said Tuesday.
Dave Berghold, clock repairman from Bozeman, and Mike Kovacich, machinist and clock specialist from Anaconda, had hoped the job would be completed when they worked on the clock on July 2. But a piece of machinery designed by Kovacich didn't work the way it was intended, Kovacich said.
The clock, manufactured at the turn of the century in Boston by the E. Howard Clock Co., requires winding. Kovacich's piece was designed to automatically wind the clock whenever needed, but ended up unwinding the clock after it was [wound].
Kovacich is reworking his design and hopes to have it ready in a couple of weeks, he said.
The clock ran for a few hours after the men installed the first automatic rewind mechanism, but it stopped working when the clock needed to be [wound].
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"It was just a quagmire," Berghold said.
Butte's old City Hall, 24 E. Broadway St., at one time housed the police department. The building was renovated some years ago — and the pyramid-shaped roof was returned to the clock tower, among other improvements. Today, a dermatology practice and law offices are located on the lower floor in the building.
The dermatology clinic and the Urban Revitalization Agency are splitting the bill for the clock repair, estimated by Berghold to be less that $5,000.
From the Montana Standard