Athens-Clarke County City Hall

    Construction of City Hall began in 1903 when Captain J.W. Barnett “proposed to build it” with “$50,000 realized from the sale of city hall bonds” which the citizens authorized in a vote.³ In 1904, the city of Athens completed its construction on a new City Hall building which was, and still is, “situated on the highest elevation in Downtown Athens.”⁴ The new building held rooms for most of the elected public officials for the city of Athens, a council chamber, and public restrooms. Originally, the bell was also linked to the city fire alarm, and the eagle atop the bell tower was intended to be a weather vane. The clock, still functioning today, is now electrified though this was not the case before 1943 when the clock “operated with a counterweight system like an old grandfather type clock.”⁵

     This structure, though renovated to a modern scale, is is still utilized by the modern Athens-Clarke government, which represents the incorporation “of Athens into Clarke County under one governing authority.”⁶ After the two seats of government were unified by a new charter “adopted by referendum on August 7, 1990” City Hall has been the seat of government for the entire Athens-Clarke County area.⁷ This was especially true when Gwen O’Looney chose City Hall,"because people [were] used to seeing [City Hall] as a place to come to for services," as her new seat of government when she became the inaugural new Chief Elected Officer of the newly unified Athens-Clarke County district.⁸

     Since then, City Hall has continued to stand as a political symbol of the unity of Athens and Clarke County, and its central position in downtown Athens allows it to continue to serve as a political rallying point for the community.