Smithsburg Town Hall Tower Restoration Project

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Smithsburg Town Hall Tower Restoration Project

Smithsburg Town Hall was built in 1893. Over time, upper parts of the structure fell into disrepair. 30 years ago the tower top was chopped off.

Join the effort to restore the tower. Make it the pride of Smithsburg! Donate at http://smithsburgtower.com/

10/24/2019

A Halloween themed art project from, Mrs. Water's fifth grade class, 1976. The town hall building looked like the classic haunted house. The town hall tower could be seen from most classrooms at Smithsburg Elementary School back in the day. (Today it can be seen from the hill, but some trees have grown up and partially block the view.)

06/18/2019

05/04/2019

A view of the restored town hall tower from the Smithsburg Library, with veteran's park below. The Town Hall Tower Dedication party is on Sat. June 15th, at 11:00 a.m. Make it a part of the fun you have at Smithsburg Days!

05/01/2019

Springtime arrives at the restored Smithsburg town hall tower. The dedication ceremonies have been sheduled for June 15th, the Saturday of Smithsburg Days. Watch this space for more info!

04/02/2019

Built in 1893, and originally called Excelsior Hall, this building was a community center for the next several decades. In the late 1980s, the distinctive mansard cap of the tower was removed and taken to the dump, and leaving an odd boxy looking stump of a building. In 2013, the year of the 200th anniversary of the founding of Smithsburg the Smithsburg Historical Society formed the Town Hall Tower Restoration Team, and began fundraising to restore the tower. Fundraising was slow, but steady, and work began in 2018 to rebuild the 50 foot tower. It was completed in early 2019. There will be a dedication ceremony on Saturday of the 2019 Smithsburg Days Festival.

09/20/2018

Taken on Sunday September 16th. The tower is returning!

08/05/2018

It's happening! Work on town hall tower is set to begin this week, and if the weather cooperates, it should be finished by the middle of the fall.

07/07/2018

https://www.heraldmailmedia.com/news/local/smithsburg-town-hall-tower-restoration-could-start-this-month/article_2ffc04ee-80b7-11e8-a2ae-df01584c33bb.html

SMITHSBURG — The restoration of the tower that once stood atop the Smithsburg Town Hall could begin this month.

02/25/2018

Historic town hall photo rediscovered! This photo was taken by Tucker Dusing, who died in the mid 1980s. Tucker was known to most people as the tall pot bellied man who shuffled down from the mountain with saggy pants and a kerosene jug in his hand. Most people knew about Tucker's pungent aroma, but few people knew that he wrote essays and took photos of Smithsburg history. This photo was spotted yesterday in one of his scrapbooks. , now kept by the Smithsburg Historical society. It was probably taken in the 1930s, and it the earliest known photo of the town hall from this particular angle.

02/22/2018

In 1977 John Wheeler took this picture of Smithsdburg from atop South Mountain. Can you spot the town hall tower?

02/18/2018

The Smithsburg Town Hall was built in 1893. The Addams Family made its debut 50 years later... is this just a coincidence? Probably, but the Addams' house sure looks familiar.....

Address

20 E. Water Street
Smithsburg, MD
21783

Opening Hours

11am - 2pm

Telephone

+13018247154

Website

http://smithsburgtower.com/

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Putting the Cap Back on the Tower

Our goal is to rebuild the Smithsburg town hall tower’s missing “cap”. Thirty years ago, the Smithsburg Town Hall Tower had some maintenance issues. One of them was the town hall’s tower. The cap on the 4-story tower had become weathered and worn, and as a stop-gap maintenance measure it was removed. This was the late 1980s, and the town budget was tight. It had no money to rebuild the tower cap. The restoration project began in late 2013, as a grassroots citizen effort to restore the distinctive mansard style cap on the town hall.

As of mid-February 2018, we have almost fundraising and donations have paid for engineering, architectural blueprints. This money has also paid for and reinforcements to the town hall just below where the new cap will be built. we have almost 81% of the total costs ($48,000) needed to build the new cap. Construction can begin as early as the summer of 2018 if we can raise enough money.

Even with the cap back on town hall, there are still other parts of the building that need restoring. On the third level of the tower, windows were removed and the openings were sided over. The cost for putting back the windows is another $8,000. This restoration of the windows is a separate cost from the $48,000 above. Any money raised over the $48,000 to put on the new cap will go toward putting back the missing tower windows.

Donations can be made by mail or by visiting our Website: www.smithsburgtower.com Click on the DONATE button at the top of the page, and you will be connected to our PayPal account. Or of you like, you can mail a check to the Smithsburg Historical Society, P.O. Box 403, Smithsburg, MD 21783. (please indicate “town hall tower restoration fund” in the memo line of the check. The Smithsburg Town Hall Tower Restoration Project is a committee of the Smithsburg Historical Society, a non-profit 501(c)3.)