Chester City Hall – Chester, South Carolina

Chester‘s City Hall has long been a center of political and civic activity. Over the years, it has served as the city’s jail and its fire station. The third floor was designed as an opera house, but it also hosted community talent shows, graduations, recitals, and concerts. In 1929 a fire devastated the building, destroying the opera house and many valuable books and documents stored there. The Chester County Library was fortunately able to salvage about 700 books from the building after the fire, which it still has today. The opera house was not rebuilt in the renovation.

The Chester City Hall building was constructed around 1890 by Frank Munson of Columbia. The building’s architecture is described as Romanesque Revival because of its elaborate facade and brick design. It is listed on the National Register of Historic Places and is a treasure to the Chester community.