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Founded, according to legend, around 640 AD by the giants Lyderic and Phinaert, Lille was in turn Flemish, Burgundian and under Spanish rule, before becoming French in 1668, following Louis XIV’s conquest of the city. Today, it is France’s third most populous metropolis.
Feb 17, 2022 · According to legend, Lille was founded by giants Phinaert and Lyderic in 640AD. The first written traces of Lille city appear in a document from 1066. 'L'Isle' was the name that first appeared in a donation charter of St. Peter's Collegiate Church by Baudoin V, who was the Count of Flanders in 1066.
- The Old Old City Hall
- Building A Temple For Government
- A Clock to Tick Off The Centuries
- Statues Everywhere
- A Masterpiece Is Unveiled
- The Building Many Loved to Hate
- Planning A New City Hall
- A Mustard-Yellow Municipal Death Trap
- A Stay of Execution
- The Executioner
Detroit was still a small but growing city of only 12.75 square miles in the late 1850s when plans were made to build a majestic landmark where the future of a booming, sprawling metropolis would be born. The city’s government was operating out of a small structure on the east side of Campus Martius then. What would become the city’s old Old City H...
Old City Hall was built on a site that saw much turnover. First serving as part of a military reservation, then as the home of the Association for the Promotion of Female Education, which was turned into a state armory, then a state office building. It was then handed over to the University of Michigan in May 1842 on a 999-year lease, back when the...
One of the nation's top clockmakers, W.A. Hendrie of Chicago, created the clock especially for Detroit and regarded it as his masterpiece. Its four dials – each 8 feet 3 inches in diameter and made in Glasgow, Scotland – were illuminated at night so citizens all over downtown could see the time. (Remember, the clock tower was the highest point in t...
The clock tower featured four, 14-foot sandstone maidens at the base of the cupola that peered down on Campus Martius from 110 feet up. The quartet represented the civic virtues of Art, Commerce, Industry and Justice. Commerce held a mercurial staff, Justice the scales and Industry tools and gears of the trade. The maidens, weighing 10 tons each, w...
The building’s dedication ceremony was held July 4, 1871, and overseen by Mayor William W. Wheaton. It was a rainy affair that began at 7 a.m. with the ringing of the bell under the direction of bell ringer George Doty. The day was punctuated with speeches, a gun salute and rockets and Roman candles set off from the building’s clock tower. There wa...
Despite such praise, City Hall was the target of many demolition attempts over its 90-year life. Time and again, the veritable landmark found several saviors, most often in Common Council President (and later as mayor) John C. Lodge. One of the first opponents of Old City Hall was Pingree, revered by many as the city’s best mayor. He was mayor from...
It seemed nearly every week, a story appeared in one of Detroit’s daily newspapers about a new plan to replace Old City Hall. Among them in 1935-36: Building an eight-story City Halland office building on the then-current site at a cost of $3 million ($47.4 million). This was the plan suggested by a committee formed by Mayor Couzens. Erecting a bui...
The problem was brought by new ordinances and fire safety regulations. Having been built more than half a century earlier, City Hall did not meet fire escape or emergency exit requirements and its open shafts and stairwells could become dangerous flues for smoke. In what became an annual tradition, the Department of Buildings and Safety Engineering...
The City-County Building, now known as the Coleman A. Young Municipal Center, would finally doom City Hall. When it was made clear that the city government had outgrown Old City Hall, the city built the skyscraper at a cost of $26 million (about $204.7 million today). The Detroit Common Council held its 4,370th and final weekly formal session in Ol...
After Cobo died, those who wanted to see City Hall devoured by bulldozers started moving with the force of a steamroller. As Common Council president, Louis C. Miriani rose to succeed Cobo. Where Mayor Lodge had been Old City Hall’s defender, Mayor Miriani was its executioner. Miriani and other city officials had long held that the building was hol...
2 days ago · After being captured by the duke of Marlborough in 1708, it was finally ceded to France in 1713 by the Treaty of Utrecht. Lille was damaged and also occupied by the Germans during World Wars I and II. With Tourcoing and Roubaix, Lille forms one of the largest conurbations in France.
- The Editors of Encyclopaedia Britannica
The belfry of the Hôtel de ville de Lille (Lille City Hall) is one of the 23 belfries in the Nord-Pas-de-Calais and Somme regions that were classified as UNESCO World Heritage Sites in July 2005, in recognition of their architecture and importance to the rise of municipal power in Europe.
Feb 25, 2023 · Founded in the 11th century, Lille played an important role in the textile industry during the Middle Ages, and later became a major center for the production of lace. Today, the city is a cultural hub, renowned for its museums, art galleries, and music scene.
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Oct 14, 2010 · In July 1942, the top of Detroit’s city hall was dwarfed by the more modern Penobscot Building in the background. The derelict cornerstones of the same city hall lie cast aside.
