The Metuchen Municipal Building, located at 500 Main Street, is the town hall for the borough of

Metuchen Metuchen ( ) is a suburban Borough (New Jersey), borough in Middlesex County, New Jersey, Middlesex County, New Jersey, United States. The borough is a commuter town of New York City, located in the heart of the Raritan River, Raritan Valley reg ...

in Middlesex County, New Jersey. The two-story concrete building, with brick facade, was built in 2003 and dedicated on September 1, 2005.

Historic building

The building replaced an earlier structure, the Metuchen Borough Hall, that had been built during the

City Beautiful movement The City Beautiful Movement was a reform philosophy of North American architecture and urban planning that flourished during the 1890s and 1900s with the intent of introducing beautification and monumental grandeur in cities. It was a part of the ...

in 1924. It was demolished soon after its listing on the

New Jersey Register of Historic Places The New Jersey Register of Historic Places is the official list of historic resources of local, state, and national interest in the U.S. state of New Jersey. The program is administered by the New Jersey's state historic preservation office with ...

and

National Register of Historic Places The National Register of Historic Places (NRHP) is the United States federal government's official list of districts, sites, buildings, structures and objects deemed worthy of preservation for their historical significance or "great artistic ...

in 2001. It had been listed due to its significance in architecture and politics/government. With The listing of the original Borough Hall as a historic site was controversial as it was unilaterally submitted by a small community activist group called the "Fairweather Friends" As a result of this listing, lawmakers made changes so that any public building could not be listed on a historic places list unless the governing body of that public building agrees to such a listing. The intent of this legal change was to insure that the entire public and not just one particular group seeking a historic designation is represented when these decisions are made on public buildings. It was designed by Metuchen architect Clement W. Fairweather and included space for borough offices, a library, and a police station. The two-story building was built of brick using

Flemish bond Brickwork is masonry produced by a bricklayer, using bricks and mortar. Typically, rows of bricks called ''courses'' are laid on top of one another to build up a structure such as a brick wall. Bricks may be differentiated from blocks by siz ...

and featured

Classical Revival architecture Neoclassical architecture is an architectural style produced by the Neoclassical movement that began in the mid-18th century in Italy and France. It became one of the most prominent architectural styles in the Western world. The prevailing style ...

with columns, pilasters, and a decorative stone

cartouche In Egyptian hieroglyphs, a cartouche is an oval with a line at one end tangent to it, indicating that the text enclosed is a royal name. The first examples of the cartouche are associated with pharaohs at the end of the Third Dynasty, but the f ...

with a Classical shield.

References

{{NRHP in Middlesex County, New Jersey City and town halls in New Jersey Buildings and structures in Middlesex County, New Jersey Government buildings completed in 1924 Government buildings completed in 2003 Beaux-Arts architecture in New Jersey Metuchen, New Jersey New Jersey Register of Historic Places City and town halls on the National Register of Historic Places in New Jersey

Historic building

See also

References