Down at the other end of the building, the Meaford Public Library welcomed generations of schoolchildren and their parents. The chambers also served as a courtroom, and in the basement miscreants apprehended by the local constabulary would find a cold berth in one of three tiny jail cells. Presiding over Market Square, with its bandstand and athletic field, the building housed the council chambers and town offices.
Like many public buildings across small-town Ontario, Meaford Hall was meant to be more than a Town Hall. "Its massive and graceful outlines," he declared, "will stand as a monument to prosperity and progress.and doubtless will be for many generations one of its prominent landmarks." Horsley bragged that Meaford Hall would be the largest municipal building in the County of Grey. On the day the cornerstone was laid in August of 1908, Mayor J.W. Local contractor James Sparling won the construction bid for $20,240, and thrifty businessman that he was, recycled as much of the original town hall's brick as possible in the construction of the new building. Now he was home to make his mark on Meaford. Senior Partner James Ellis was a Meaford native who'd gone on make a name for himself in Toronto for his designs of schools, churches and other public buildings – such as the Bank of North America at King and Dufferin Streets. Now the way was paved.Įllis and Connery, Toronto architects, earned the commission for the new Town Hall. The building, built in 1864, had become dilapidated, and there'd long been talk of something grander. When fire had swept through the old Town Hall in the wee hours of October 5, 1907, no one was unduly upset. A glint of brass and a valiant fanfare announced the arrival of the Meaford Cornet Band, and the crowd strained to see as the town's officials mounted the steps of Meaford's new Town Hall and Opera House.įor the past year, the town had watched as Meaford Town Hall rose on the hill above the harbour its grand Palladian lines and stately Doric columns a stamp of respectability on the booming town. On a cold, early spring day in 1909, a crowd of townspeople gathered at the muddy corner of Nelson and Sykes Streets.
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