| Significance
Canby City Hall was a project of the Public Works Administration (PWA), a program for work relief under the federal government during the Great Depression. The City Hall was nationally recognized at the time of its construction as an example of an ideal modest city hall (Short and Stanley-Brown 1939).The city hall is recommended to be considered significant under Criterion A of the eligibility criteria for the National Register of Historic Places in the area of government as Canby’s most iconic government building. It is also eligible under Criterion C as one of only two major public buildings in Canby to be constructed under the PWA—the other being Canby Union High School.
History
The present City Hall is Canby’s third. Two other buildings have been used as the seat of local government. The first was the Knight Building at 394 NW 1st Street, a rented multi-purpose event space. The second was a purpose-built city hall erected in 1901 on 1st Avenue, just northeast of the Knight Building on the same block (Sanborn Map Company 1913, 1931). This formal city hall was designed by E.D. Olds of Oregon City, who did extensive work in Clackamas County, including designing several bridges and commercial buildings (Oregon City Courier-Herald 1902).
After thirty years, there were distinct inadequacies in the 1st Avenue building. Foremost among these concerns was its wood frame and therefore its potential susceptibility to fire, but the city council also believed the building to be just overall inadequate (Canby Herald 1935a; Canby Herald 1935b). The local paper was also convinced of the need for the new building, declaring the city’s present offices for the council, fire department and jail to be “hazards” and too small to be useful (Canby Herald 1935c).
The city acquired the double lot on which the city hall is located in July 1931 from J.D. and Esther M. Morris for a purported sum of $50 (Clackamas County Recorder 1931) under Mayor Dr. Henry A. Dedman. The Morrises named in the deed are most likely the Portlanders Jefferson D. and Esther M. Morris (U.S. Bureau of the Census 1930). Despite this early acquisition, serious discussions about funding the project did not begin until late 1935 (Canby Herald 1935a). It was submitted to city voters at the January 31, 1936, election (Canby Herald 1935c). Despite early selection of the site, there was significant consideration given to reusing the original Main Street/1st Street site in the period right before the election (Canby Herald 1935c, 1936a). There were also questions about the city’s expenditure of its funds, as it had already purchased new fire equipment necessitating the new building before the question was submitted to the voters (Canby Herald 1936b) Obviously, the voters ultimately approved the building, but the local paper did not report exact election results (Canby Herald 1936c). The project was completed under Mayor J.R. Vinyard (1887–1948) (Oregon Death Index 2008; U.S. Selective Service System 1918), who was also a local merchant. He served as mayor from 1933 to 1946 (Enterprise-Courier 1963).
The city was awarded $5,318 from the federal government to build the new combined city hall and fire house in July 1936 (The Morning Oregonian 1936). The city provided additional funding, with a final project cost of $11,642. The design was intended to house all aspects of the local government at the time—including a council chamber, Light & Water Department public service counter, fire station, and three-cell jail (Short and Stanley-Brown 1939).
The Public Works Administration was a federal program formed in 1933 to address the Great Depression by spending government money on construction projects for public facilities on behalf of any level of government from cities and school boards to the federal government itself. Contracts were awarded to private firms who then completed the projects. Countless buildings from this program survive in Oregon from the small Canby City Hall, to the U.S. Highway 101 coast bridges, to the state capitol (Sawyer 2014).
In 1961 the fire department moved out of the east wing and it was remodeled to serve as the library, which functioned under the direction of Ora Lee Cattley (1890–1966). Cattley was the granddaughter of city founder Philander Lee (1802–1887) (Canby Herald and Canby Centennial Celebration Committee 1993:27–28). The library had previously been in other locations in the building. In 1977, it moved out of the City Hall building permanently (Canby Herald and Canby Centennial Celebration Committee 1993:9, 15)
The architects for the city hall project were the firm of Jones & Marsh of Portland. Born in Portland in 1887, George Howell Jones trained in engineering briefly at the Oregon State College and then in studied architecture at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, completing the program in 1913 (The Oregonian 1950). He worked in New York City for several years and served in World War I in the army as a combat engineer. At war’s end, he came back to New York briefly and then returned to Portland where he became the district architect for Portland Public Schools. Jones’ father had served in the position of district architect previously. George Jones designed dozens of schools in Portland, staying in the position until 1932 or 1934. In the early 1930s, he went into private practice with Harold Dickson Marsh, with whom he worked until he died of a heart attack in his office in 1950. Together they worked many more school projects around the state and at least one more fire station in Portland (The Oregonian 1950; Ritz 2002:216–217).
Harold D. Marsh lived a similar life, having been born in Portland in 1889, attending Oregon State College and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology for architecture, and graduating the same year as Jones in 1913. However, Marsh immediately returned to Portland, working for others until starting his own firm in 1920. Marsh also served as an army engineer in World War I and worked briefly in New York City upon his return. Marsh’s specialty was houses, but he served as a partner in the design of many schools around Oregon with Jones. He was responsible for designing numerous public buildings in Klamath Falls. He continued to practice independently after Jones’ death and died himself in 1969 (Ritz 2002:269–270)
During the 1970s and 1980s, Canby completed many alterations and changes of use to the city hall. Ralph “Bud” Atwood, short-time city administrator and long-time city employee, oversaw the removal of the library from the building and the conversion of a neighboring building into the city’s police station (Schouten 1986).
Ownership History
The city acquired the double lot on which the city hall is located in July 1931 from J.D. and Esther M. Morris for a purported sum of $50 (Clackamas County Recorder 1931). |
