Is Pawtucket City Hall for the birds?

In an attempt to balance the city’s budget, one suggestion put forth recently by Pawtucket officials was to lop off the tower of City Hall. Their thinking was to save the cost of further repairs for leaks that continue to exist after a recent renovation project that cost the city close to two million dollars. Mayor Don Grebien has projected that $350,000 will be needed for repairs to the tower that is purely ornamental – it is hollow except for structural elements.

Pawtucket City Hall was built in 1933 with money from President F.D. Roosevelt’s Federal Works Progress Administration. Designed by a local architect, John F. O’Malley, the tower measures 140 feet high. Recognized as an important example of the Art Deco style, the building was added to the National Historic Register in 1983.

The restoration that took place between 2005 and 2006 included installing twelve foot wide concrete reproductions of the eagles that once adorned the top of the tower.

From the ProJo, February, 2006:

The concrete eagles that once perched atop Pawtucket City Hall are back. Absent since 1974, the eagles were restored to their lofty perch after the city discovered it had enough money for the project, and a designer and sculptor developed the means. It wasn’t easy. All that remained of the original eagles were a few photographs taken from the street. The photographs were of “varying degrees of resolution,” the sculptor, Robert T. McPherson, said. They had to be blown up to yield the level of detail needed to make reproductions that matched the originals, he said. The plans for the originals were missing, and so were the molds. There were four eagles, one on each side of the tower. Like the reproductions, they had wingspans of 12 1/2 feet and weighed more than a ton apiece.

There are also eagles adorning the entrance facade. And these eagles at ground level served as the inspiration for the Art Deco design elements on the new Pawtucket Bridge, just starting construction. Coincidentally, funding of $110,000,000 for the new bridge is coming from President Obama’s Stimulus Plan.

L: Detail of Art Deco style eagle at entrance to City Hall
R: Model of sculptural element on the new bridge

Architect’s rendering of the new bridge

John F. O’Malley, designer of Pawtucket City Hall, was a very popular architect in the region in the 30’s and 40’s. In Pawtucket he designed Shea High School on East Avenue, the Elks Lodge on Exchange Street and the now demolished Leroy Theatre located where Walgreens is located at the corner of Exchange St. and Broad. (The Leroy was a spectacular theatre in its heyday with the largest Wurlitzer organ in New England, a chandelier with 4700 light bulbs and seating for 2700. Many local residents morn the loss of the Leroy Theatre.)

In addition to eagles on city hall, there are also peregrine falcons that nest on the top of the tower. The falcons nested for many years on the Pawtucket Bridge, but when construction on the bridge began, the Department of Transportation installed nesting platforms on City Hall to provide the falcons a new home.