Smiths Falls Modernizing Historic Town Hall

The Town of Smiths Falls is modernizing a piece of community history while keeping its original charm intact.

The municipality is investing the Canada Community-Building Fund into upgrades at its Town Hall, an original feature of the community built in 1859. Over its long service life, the building has been a police station, fire hall, and is now the municipality’s administrative services building and council chambers.

The last renovations in the Town Hall were completed in the 1970s, and updates were long overdue. Council endorsed a plan to upgrade the entire facility to make it accessible, and update administrative offices, council chambers and council’s in-camera meeting space.

Renovations completed in the 1970s covered up many of the original finishes that gave the building historic charm. In 2022, the municipality entered the third phase of its Town Hall rehabilitation, starting with the removal of all previous finishes to the outside walls in order to rebuild.

Three layers of ceilings were removed from the interior of the building, exposing a beautiful indoor space that was used in the 1800s as a community hall, courthouse and performance theatre. The second floor of the Town Hall featured 16-foot ceilings, and was originally heated with dual coal stoves at either end of the building.

Modernization upgrades will include new infrastructure to allow live-streaming of council meetings for public viewing, along with an elevator and accessible washrooms to ensure everyone can visit the Town Hall and participate in meetings and events. The 14-foot ceilings, new lighting, and upgrades to council chambers will improve visitor experience, and upgrades to the space will also increase public capacity for meetings by 50 percent.

Early estimates show upgrades will make the building more energy efficient, resulting in a reduction in energy use of 62 percent.