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THE CITY HALL MATTER
A CLEAR VIEW OF THE CITY DEBT-
ALLEGED CORRUPTIONS, ETC.
In respect to the new City Hall now in progress, for
full details the committee visited the office of Mr. Fred-
erick, architect, who exhibited and explained the details
and designs of his plan for a new City Hall, which has
been approved and adopted by the commissioners charged
with the ejection of the building. The report says:
The design contemplates a building of great beauty of
style and proportions, and of imposing magnificence com-
bined with durability and ample accommodations for the
present and growing wants of the city. It is designed to
cover the square bounded by Holliday, Fayette, North and
Lexington streets, and is two hundred and thirty-one feet
by one hundred and fifty feet from Holliday to North
street. The design contemplates a building three stories
high, with interior courts, a central and spacious rotunda,
with dome two hundred and thirty-four feet high, with a
large number of conveniently arranged apartments,
adapted to every present and anticipated want, with stair-
ways and Corridors appropriate and in full proportion to
the interior arrangements. The outer walls are designed
to be faced with well selected and durable white marble,
skillfully wrought, while iron trusses and groins of ma-
sonry support the floors, and will give great firmness and
durability, as well as much security against fire.
The committee are free to say that if the financial con-
dition of the city justified the expenditure, the building
contemplated is appropriate, and such as is required by
the wants of a city of increasing numbers and wealth
But when we consider the magnitude of the city debt, and
the consequent burthens of taxation weighing down the
industry of our people and paralyzing their energies,
and that, too, when great financial troubles are impend-
ing, and the substance of our people is wasting away and
values changing, however, gratifying it might be to our
feelings and our city pride to have such a hall, we are ad-
monished that this is not the time to embark in such ex-
pensive enterprise. The existing corporate debt of Balti-
more city, gathered from information obtained from the
city comptroller, appears to be as follows:
517
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