Oakland City Hall, located at 1 Frank H. Ogawa Plaza adjacent to 14th Street, was completed in 1914. At the time, it was the tallest building west of the Mississippi, at 335 feet tall. The Beaux Arts building replaced an earlier City Hall building which formerly stood on what is now Frank Ogawa Plaza. The first day of business at the new City Hall was on Saturday, June 7, 1913. Cake

On October 13, 1911, President William Howard Taft laid the cornerstone for the new city hall. When city hall first opened to the public, it included a jail (complete with outside exercise area), a fire station, a police station, and a small hospital. Today it houses a variety of city offices, as well as various chambers used for city council meetings and other city meetings.

After suffering damage during the 1989 Loma Prieta earthquake, the building was immediately shut down. The building reopened in 1995 after an $85 million seismic retrofitting and can now move 18-20 inches laterally in an earthquake. 1 The most prominent feature, the “wedding-cake” cupola is earthquake prone .

The current Oakland City Hall was designated Oakland Landmark #28, under Zoning Case #LM 79-131, on June 19, 1979, and is also listed on the National Register of Historic Places.

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