File:Cincinnati City Hall, Cincinnati, OH - 53004205369.jpg

English: This is Cincinnati City Hall, the seat of the municipal government in the city of Cincinnati, located on a block bounded by Plum Street, Central Avenue, 8th Street, and 9th Street at the northwest corner of downtown. Constructed in 1893, the massive Richardson Romanesque-style building was designed by prolific local architect Samuel Hannaford, based on the work of Henry Hobson Richardson, and replaced an earlier, smaller city hall that was constructed on the site in 1852. The building is built of rusticated stone, with a taupe granite base, light tan sandstone body, and darker, red sandstone trim, making up the heavy stone arches and bands, a hallmark of the style. The building utilized forced perspective to make it appear taller and large than it really is, with windows and other features reducing in size higher up on the building. The building has a rough quadrilateral symmetry, only broken by the small details above the doorways and the nine-story tower at the corner of 8th Street and Plum Street, which towers over the surrounding cityscape and features a four-sided clock that can be seen from far afield. The building features many dormers and a complex red slate roof, with conical roofs over the building’s rounded corners and pyramidal roofs over the primary pavilions, which project outwards towards the street from the main body of the building, with the tallest points on the roof being crowned with cast iron finials. Inside, two courtyards allow for light and air to reach interior rooms, while interior spaces are outfitted with fine marble staircases, granite columns, ceiling frescoes stained glass windows, and mosaic floors, all symbols of the city’s 19th Century wealth and prosperity. The fine building is a symbol of the city’s rich past, and continues to serve as the main seat of the city government, having been listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1972. It sits on Plum Street across from the Issac M. Wise Temple (1866) and next to St. Peter’s-in-Chains Cathedral (1845), two of the city’s most notable landmarks, making this area one of the greatest clusters of 19th Century monumental architecture in the United States.