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 story Richardsonian Romanesque structure contained the police department, jail and fire department, as did the earlier city hall. At one front corner of the brick and stone building is a tall, five story clock tower. At the front of the building, on the lower story, rusticated stone replaces the brick which covers the remainder of the building. The same stone is use in window lintels, sills and bands separating each floor of the building and in other strategic spots throughout the building. In the stone façade on the lower floor are three large Roman arches, the outer two once door frames for the fire department's apparatus, which occupied the building until about 1900.
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.
CITY HALL
Butte had over eighty working mines and a teeming population by 1890. The resulting flurry of industrial and commercial activity initiated a building boom, prompting Mayor Henry Mueller to oversee the construction of this handsome three-story Richardsonian Romanesque-inspired municipal building in 1891. The tall, narrow edifice of brick and stone features a clock tower, arched entrance, and arched windows with stained glass transoms. Butte’s last standing example of nineteenth-century civic architecture, this noble hall served as the seat of city government from 1891 until consolidation of city-county governments in 1977.
From the NRHP plaque at the building