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Gillette City Hall (1936) is located in the City of Gillette in the northcentral portion of the Powder River Basin in northeastern Wyoming. The building is located in the downtown commercial district at 400 South Gillette Avenue. It occupies the southwest corner of the intersection of South Gillette Avenue and West Fourth Street. The corner lot on which it is located is 140’ E-W x 75’ N-S. The original City Hall is a tall one-story building (90’ E-W x 50’ N-S) with a later two-story west addition (33’ E-W x 60’ NS). This brick building is a modest example of Art Deco architecture, exhibiting such features as a symmetrical façade, a stepped brick pavilion (main entrance) and a variety of decorative brickwork. Windows feature rowlock brick sills and soldier brick lintels. An early twentieth-century residential neighborhood is situated directly west of the building; in all other directions is a variety of commercial and civic buildings, many of which were also constructed with brick. The building has modest landscaping, with a small lawn and shrubbery on the east and part of the north sides. Gillette Main Street has installed a four-sided clock nearby that lends a historic ambiance to the immediate area, along with street signs and lampposts of a similar nature. A new city hall was built in 1984; however, the term City Hall or Gillette City Hall refers to the 1936 building in this nomination.
Gillette City Hall (1936) is eligible for inclusion in the National Register of Historic Places as a locally significant building under Criterion C. The period of historical significance dates to 1936, when the building was constructed. Notable dates in the history of the building include 1936, when the building was constructed and first occupied; 1967, when the two-story fire department west addition was constructed; 1974, when the fire department moved to a new building; 1978, when the city hall offices moved; and 1984, when the police department moved, and the building was put up for sale by the City of Gillette. Gillette City Hall served as the city hall, fire station, city jail, and community meeting place. This building was constructed during the Great Depression without the aid of any federal funding via New Deal programs. Construction was financed entirely by the City of Gillette, a fact that was touted in the local newspapers as a source of community pride and self-sufficiency. Gillette City Hall (1936) is locally significant under Criterion C, as a property that embodies the distinctive characteristics of a type, period, or method of construction. The building represents a modest example of Art Deco architecture, a part of the modernistic style popular in America from about 1920 to 1940.
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