This was a combination Firehouse, Opera House, and Town Hall
Anna Town Hall, Anna Ohio
Anna's Town Hall was built when a need for a jail, opera house, fire department, and village office space was decided upon. The large brick structure with elaborate brickwork and arched tin hoodmolds was built on the old Corduroy Road that ran from the Miami-Erie canal town of Minster.
Even though the funds are scarce, the village council voted to bring back the original beauty of the building through preservation and restoration of the exterior according to old photos of the original building.
The area around the village of Anna (population 970) was settled as early as 1833 when pioneers came from Dayton and bought land at $1.25 an acre. John W. Carey bought 100 acres west of the present Baltimore and Ohio railroad. He was the most influential figure in getting the railroad that ran from Dayton to Michigan built through this area in 1857. Since he was required to build the station, the unincorporated village was known as Carey's Station. In 1858 he laid out the village pleat which later led to incorporation in 1877. At Carey's request, the community's name was changed to Anna in honor of Carey's daughter.
Anna is also known as the "Earthquake Capital of Ohio," since 29 of the 79 recorded quakes in Ohio have been centered in Anna which sits on glacial till several hundred feet above the presumed fault in the bedrock. Many of Anna's older buildings of frame have been damaged by the quakes, but the Town Hall has been untouched.
The opera house is no longer used, the jail was discontinued, but the fire department still houses two trucks on the east side and the village council uses the west downstairs for an office and meeting room.
Building Description
The Town Hall in Anna was built shortly after the town was incorporated in 1877 along the route of the Dayton and Michigan Railroad. The facade that faces north and the west side of the building are elaborate with intricate brickwork while the east side directly shares the wall with a frame restaurant. The rear of the building has never had an addition.
The facade has pleasing proportions with four metal hooded windows across the second story with pilasters creating the illusion of a projecting frontispiece topped with a gabled dormer that is flush with the facade. This dormer has a pair of round-arched windows that flank a larger central 6/6 curved arch window. On top of the dormer is the square bell tower which is the alarm system for the fire department housed on the first floor. The roof is slate with "ANNA" painted in yellow near the ridge of the hipped roof. Inside the second story are a side stairway that leads from the opera house, a stage area and a sloping floor for theater chairs.
The ceiling is of pressed tin decorated squares with hanging gas lamps. The opera house portion is deteriorated and vagrants sleep up there to escape the winter cold.
The first floor of the facade has had some alteration when the two curved arched doors for hand-drawn or horse-drawn fire equipment were replaced with the single overhead door for mechanized trucks. Those arched tin hoods with transoms have been stored in the upstairs since their removal and will: be put back when restoration occurs. The multi-paned window and two hooded doorways with transoms on the west side of the facade are intact.
An addition to the west side of the building that will house two fire trucks and an emergency vehicle.
West side of building (1977)
