North Tonawanda City Hall

North Tonawanda City Hall – 216 Payne Avenue

Site of the famous gravel incident which led to the birth of North Tonawanda

The present building was built in 1929. South on Payne is Brauer Park and the City's World War II memorial. Originally located on Thompson Street, the City Board authorized moving City Hall and the Police Department from the Thompson Street building to the YMCA Building at the southeast corner of Main and Tremont in 1900. Erected in 1892, the building was occupied by the YMCA, the town and county hall, the jail and police station. Below: City Hall at 216 Payne Avenue in 1947.

Until well after the Civil War, the new village was a cluster of buildings in the angle made by the creek and the river. The northerly limit was along Sylvan Street, where the gravel pit was located. This became Thompson Street, named for Oliver Thompson. Geneva Street was named for his wife. His son, James Sweeney Thompson, was involved with selling the outlying Sweeney property. James Sweeney Thompson was Village President from 1885 to 1887.

In the photo above, policemen in their patrol vehicles in front of the YMCA Building which housed the police station. At the left of the YMCA Building can be seen part of First Methodist Church on the north east corner of Main and Tremont Streets.

Photo: Courtesy of George Trautman Collection

There were two wards in the section of the village that is now the City of Tonawanda and one ward in that part of the old village now known as the City of North Tonawanda. There were frequent disputes over which side of the creek should receive the most improvements.

There was a resolution at the May 6, 1854, meeting of the Village Board of Trustees, providing that all monies collected from the taxable residents of the First Ward (previously known as North Tonawanda) be expended for the benefit of the streets of that Ward. Dispute over highway money to be spent was settled temporarily in 1855 by leaving the decision to the street committee which had equal representation. The 1854 act was re-introduced in the New York State Legislature in 1857 to separate North Tonawanda 's ward from Tonawanda. The dispute came to a head evidently because of the inability of the Trustees to decide that gravel could be taken from Tonawanda to improve highways in North Tonawanda.

Photo: North Tonawanda City Hall today, courtesy of Museum member & volunteer Betty Brandon
Photo: postcard, courtesy of Museum files.