Old Georgetown City Hall

The community of Georgetown in Washington State, just south of Seattle, was settled in 1850 as a farming community and was originally called Duwamish. For a long time, Georgetown was unincorporated, which caused saloon owners to worry that the Prohibition that was spreading across King County eventually affect Georgetown. Finally, an independent municipality was created and Prohibition never spread to Georgetown and the community was finally incorporated in 1904.

The two-story dark red brick building that was called the Georgetown City Hall was built in 1909 by Victor W. Voorhees and it held the police department, fire department, jail, city offices, and council chambers. It was unique in the fact that it was the first building in Georgetown to feature hot and cold water. More than a year later, it was discovered the fire department owned the property that the City Hall was built on, which many in the community saw as the City of Seattle's way of planning to annex the community. If this was indeed the plan it worked because on March 29, 1910, voters chose to be annexed by Seattle.

Although the community of Georgetown was no longer operating independently, the police and fire stations remained in the City Hall. On the vacant second floor, a library was put in. Eventually, the fire department and library outgrew the space, but the Seattle Police Department continue to use the historic building now called the Old Georgetown City Hall. The site is open to the public and was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1983.

National Park Service. Old Georgetown City Hall, NPS. Accessed February 6th 2020. https://www.nps.gov/nr/travel/seattle/s34.htm.

Wilma, David. Seattle Neighborhoods: Georgetown — Thumbnail History, HistoryLink. February 10th 2001. Accessed February 6th 2020. https://historylink.org/File/2975.