page_title: Hartington City Hall and Auditorium
section_title: Plan and principal facades
hierarchical_section_title: Hartington City Hall and Auditorium / Architecture / Plan and principal facades
caption_attribution_description: English: City auditorium, former city hall, in Hartington, Nebraska; seen from the southeast.
context_page_description: The Hartington City Hall and Auditorium, also known as the Hartington Municipal Building, is a city-owned, brick-clad, 2-story center in Hartington, Nebraska. It was designed between 1921 and 1923 in the Prairie School style by architect William L. Steele.
  Prairie School architecture is rare, and this rural Nebraska specimen is particularly unusual for being designed and built in the 1920s, subsequent to the Prairie Style's rapid loss of popularity after 1914.
  The building originally housed city offices, a fire house, an armory, and an auditorium. It is currently used for events, meetings, sports, recreation, and social functions.
context_section_description: The Hartington City Hall and Auditorium includes three levels: raised basement partially below grade, main level, and upper level. The basement level and main level are basically rectangular in plan, 75 feet (23 meters) wide (north-south along Broadway) and 130 feet (40 meters) front to back (east-west along Centre). However, the upper level plan is in the shape of a cross, so that the four corners are one story lower and function as wings. The two front wings project forward toward Broadway as well as laterally (north and south). The two rear wings are flush with the back (east) of the building. The southeast wing projects south and contains the two fire house doors, but the northeast wing does not project north. The basement originally contained the armory including officers’ quarters, lockers, supply room, and sleeping facilities for fire fighters, with the firehouse in back under the auditorium stage. The main level accommodated the lobby and city offices in front, the auditorium's hardwood floor taking up the large middle, and the stage in back above the fire house. The cross-shaped upper level included a small space in front above the lobby and the stage fly space in back, but the bulk of it in the middle was simply open to the auditorium.
  As situated at the intersection of Broadway and Centre Streets, the two principal facades are the front (west) facing Broadway and the south facade facing across Centre to the brick Romanesque Revival Cedar County Courthouse. The front facade is two stories above the raised basement. However, Centre Street slopes downward as it moves east away from Broadway, so that the basement level is fully above grade at the back, presenting a three-story east facade.
caption: The south facade descends from front (west) to back (east) along Centre Street. The armory was in the basement, city offices were in the wing in front, the auditorium in the main box in the center, with the stage behind it, directly above the fire house (the two large doors).
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