Portland City Hall is the home of the city's government, and the Italian Renaissance-style building was completed in 1895. It sits on a whole city block along Fourth and Fifth Avenues. The original building cost $600,000. A big renovation in 1996 to 1998 cost $29 million.
The city bought the block in 1890. Henry J. Hefty designed a huge, showy building that looked like the Kremlin, and construction began in 1892. People did not like it, so the new City Hall Commission cancelled the contract and tore out the basement and first floor at a cost of $125,000.
The city then hired the firm of Whidden and Lewis, who were in town for the Portland Hotel project. Their design is the City Hall you see today. It was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1974.