Glen Carbon Village Hall and Firehouse

Glen Carbon's Village Hall and Fire House was built in 1910 by the Oswald Brothers and designed using the Classical Revivals style of architecture which was common for public buildings of this type in the late 19^th and early 20th-century America. The property served the community as the village hall, firehouse, and jail for over seventy years, up until 1954, when the village government moved its offices to the Glen Carbon Grade School.

The Village Hall and Fire House located in Glen Carbon was built in 1910 by the Oswald Brothers and constructed in the late 19^th and early 20^th century American movements, specifically Classical Revival. The property served the community as the village hall, firehouse and jail for over seventy years, up until 1954, when the village government moved its offices to the Glen Carbon Grade School.

The Glen Carbon Village Hall and Firehouse in Glen Carbon is located on top of a hill at the northwest corner of School Street and Summit Avenue. Summit Avenue terminates at School Street, which winds uphill, creating a slightly skewed “Y” intersection. The front elevation of the village hall faces Summit Avenue and is set back about twenty feet from the street. The property’s lot measures approximately fifty feet wide and ninety feet long. About thirty feet behind the hall is a concrete-block retaining wall that separates the lawn from a paved parking lot behind the village hall. Small shrubs and plantings are located along the perimeter of the buildings foundation. Sidewalks are located along Summit and School streets and a paved walkway leads to the village hall’s entrance.

The two-and-a-half story village hall has a rectangular floor plan and measures twenty-two-and-one-half feet wide by forty six feet long. Its half-hipped roof is clad with asphalt shingles. A bell tower on a mansard base is located on the roof’s ridge, set back about five feet from the front gable’s peak. The wood framed, clapboard tower has a standing seam, metal hipped roof with a ventilator. Brackets are located beneath the eaves. Each side of the tower has an arched opening topped with keystones.

Since its construction, the building has been in continual use, with only a few changes: outside of basic maintenance and updated plumbing, heating and cooling, alterations are limited to the windows on the second floor and a door on the second floor. At some time sheetrock was installed but the trim and pressed metal ceiling remain. The Firehouse bell tower was restored in 1996, as a community project. A new bell was installed and the original bell was put on display at Fire Station No. 1, on Main Street. This project took three years to complete and was awarded a superior achievement by the Illinois State Historical Society in 1997.

Village Hall soon proved too small for Glen Carbon, and the offices were moved to the former Glen Carbon Grade School in 1954. In 1981, another firehouse was erected to serve the needs of a growing community. In 1988 the citizens passed a referendum authorizing the construction of a new Village Hall. The new Village Hall was dedicated on January 28, 1990.

Glen Carbon celebrated its 125^th year in 2017. The board room table and clerk’s bookcase from the original Village Hall are now on display at the Glen Carbon Heritage Museum. The former firehouse on the first floor is now headquarters to the Metro East Railroad Club, a group of railroad enthusiasts who have installed a model railroad in the building. A group of local Boy Scouts uses the upper floor for their meeting space and the former jail is now used as storage for Village workers.

Researched and Written by Madelyn Knight

Uploaded on behalf of Madison County Historical Society by Kiley Fuchs

http://hpa.illinois.gov/PDFs/106982.pdf ; https://www.advantagenews.com/news/glen-carbon-village-hall-and-firehouse-is-added-to-national-registry/article_a0230521-11af-5e32-bf86-db41f4e2f44f.html

https://www.theintelligencer.com/news/article/Old-Village-Hall-recognized-13000011.php

https://www.theintelligencer.com/news/article/Glen-Carbon-Village-Hall-1-of-30-Illinois-sites-13598859.php