40 Years at 1500 Marilla

“It’s time to sing or get away from the piano.”

Mayor Wes Wise said this during Dallas City Hall’s groundbreaking, referring to the long struggle to build what we now know as present-day city hall.

Planning for the Dallas Municipal Center, today known as Dallas City Hall, started in 1964 when the Dallas City Council appointed a Citizen’s City Hall Site Committee to select an appropriate location for new municipal administration offices.

Opening in 1978, the present Dallas City Hall is on an 11.8-acre site near the center of downtown Dallas. The first Dallas City Council meeting was held in the building’s City Council Chamber on February 1, 1978. The City Council Chamber is three-stories high with theatre-style seating for 250 persons. The facility was formally opened and dedicated on March 12, 1978.

At its start, City Hall contained 1,400 workstations. It had few floor-to-ceiling walls, using instead five, six, and seven-foot-high partitions to create separate offices. The absence of walls allowed employees and visitors to have window views from all areas. The second floor of Dallas City Hall is referred to as the Great Court because of its 250-foot length and the uninterrupted height to the vaulted ceiling approximately 100 feet above.

To learn more about Dallas City Hall and other municipal buildings visit our City Archives website.