Auburn City Hall

Sal is a voice that rides along as you drive Washington's roads: the road ahead, the pass, the stories of the places you pass.

The old City Hall in Auburn was a brick building about fifty years old. Four times the city went to voters for money to replace it, and four times the answer was no. Then early in 1977 a federal grant of $3.8 million arrived, part of a national program aimed at fighting unemployment, and the old building had to come down right away. City offices moved into a former grocery and auto-parts shop, while the police department took over an old health spa. The replacement was designed by the Seattle firm of Streeter/Dermanis and built by Merit Co. of Tacoma. It runs two stories of brick and glass, 47,000 square feet, with a glass-roofed greenhouse entry set back from Main Street beyond a large courtyard. The mayor said it was meant to last fifty years. [1]