Our suburban Village of Park Ridge, so named in 1873, completed construction of its first municipal building at the ‘six corners’ intersection of Touhy Avenue, North Northwest Highway and Prospect Avenue in 1896. This triangular-shaped Village Hall fit between Touhy Avenue and the Highway, with its entry door facing Prospect. The land for our Village Hall was donated by George Carpenter, our first Village President, and whose large house stood nearby, on the parcel of land between Touhy, Northwest Highway and Summit Avenue. This early image of the Hall shows the rustic vista of this now-busy intersection, with dirt roads showing on all sides of the Hall. Note the high arched windows and the first elevated water tank behind the Hall.
It is said that the Hall provided space for a courtroom, meetings, offices, the waterworks, and as the central station for fire and police services. The police and fire presence are presumably added after a later addition provided for an interior garage space to the rear of the building, as seen along the left side of the building in the second/later image.
The second image, recorded in the 1930s or early 1940s, shows improved roadways seen in both directions and the addition of a traffic signal. The building addition seen along Touhy Avenue accommodates the motor vehicles for the Fire and Police Departments.
A direct view of the south side of the Hall in the third image shows the large doors marked for Fire Department equipment, while our Police Officers stand by proudly, near the exterior ‘Police’ sign hanging from the Hall to the right in the image.
Our Village Hall transitioned to ‘City Hall’ in 1910, upon voter approval to adopt the City form of government, and election of dentist Albert Buchheit as our first mayor.
The City planned in the late 1940s to build a water reservoir under the land occupied by City Hall and the Carpenter House, which had been purchased by the City of Park Ridge years earlier. To start this process, in 1948 City Hall was demolished, and the Carpenter House renovated to accommodate the Police Department, Public Works Department, and the City’s administrative services. Thus, it became our second City Hall.
An aerial view shows the site of the first City Hall (on the corner), circa 1950 after the building was demolished. The Carpenter House adjacent to the site of the first City Hall shows their close proximity to each other and defines the footprint of the space which would later be used for the underground reservoir.
City Council meetings were moved to chambers on the second floor of a new fire station just built on Meacham Avenue north of Touhy. Note the ‘City of Park Ridge’ sign on the façade of the station.
Finally, a third City Hall evolved from the City’s purchase of the All American Life Casualty Company building at 505 Park Place in 1962 – now 505 Butler Place (Color image below). The Carpenter House City administrative offices moved first to the second floor of the new Hall that year. In the meantime, All American was building an even larger office building in the same architectural style at the corner of Touhy and Washington Avenues in Park Ridge. The Park Place insurance company’s offices were completely vacated by autumn, 1966.
An image of the first City Council chambers is below. The current City Council chambers were built during a renovation and expansion of the present day City Hall beginning in 1986.
In due course, the Police Department moved into City Hall, the Meacham Avenue fire station was replaced by two new fire stations, one at Cumberland and Devon Avenues, the other at Greenwood and Oakton Avenues. Even the water reservoir was moved west to land in Hinkley Park near Elm and Busse Highway, to make way for the Uptown development in 2005.
