Community Corner
Photo Gallery: Happy Birthday, Geneva City Hall!
Geneva celebrates the 100th anniversary of City Hall with a time-capsule opening, re-dedication and community photo. The celebration and tours went until noon May 19—with Gardenology throughout town the rest of the day.
If you're having a birthday party, you have to have a photo of the birthday girl or boy, with relatives gathered around, bearing gifts and well-wishes.
And that's no different for Geneva's City Hall, which turns 100 today.
Far more than 100 guests and well-wishers gathered to have their photos taken for posterity and for admission into the time capsule that will be buried at City Hall and opened again in another 100 years. City Hall also was re-dedicated, with a plaque honoring Chuck Lencioni, the longtime building commissioner, volunteer firefighter and community servant.
Find out what's happening in Genevawith free, real-time updates from Patch.
In his opening remarks, Mayor Kevin Burns called City Hall the community's "front porch," a piece of Americana that never goes out of style, in some ways looking very much like the photos found in the tiny, century-old time capsule whose contents were revealed Saturday morning.
Photos of the downtown bridge, St. Mark's church, the West Side School (now the Post Office), the East Side School (now Malone's Funeral Home), the Swedish Methodist Church (now the Hi-Hat House), the previous City Hall, which burned down on April 10, 1912, the Unitarian Church, post cards of the train station, copies of The Geneva Republican and a wonderful poem that served as an advertisement for the White Horse Inn (located where Bicycle Heaven is today.)
Find out what's happening in Genevawith free, real-time updates from Patch.
The time capsule to be buried will include a number of photos, post cards, Chamber of Commerce brochures and a copy of The Geneva Republican—just as the first City Hall time capsule did—but it also will contain a flash drive, with all those images preserved digitally.
We have our own time capsule now. It's called the Internet, and though it's not in print and something to hold in your hand, it is the place where Geneva History is recorded, and hopefully will be more easily accessible 100 years from now than any archealogical souvenir.
And so, for your instant enjoyment and—perhaps—posterity, we present here on Geneva Patch photos taken this morning of this historic gathering.
Please add your photos here, as well. It's a way for you to help blow out the candles and say, "Happy birthday, Geneva City Hall!"
Rick Nagel
10:32 a.m.
May 19, 2012
