page_title: Minneapolis City Hall
section_title: Interior
hierarchical_section_title: Minneapolis City Hall / Interior
caption_attribution_description: English: The Neptunian figure of the Father of Waters sits atop articles representing the river, the most prominent of which is the Louisiana alligator.
context_page_description: Minneapolis City Hall and Hennepin County Courthouse, designed by Long and Kees in 1888, is the main building used by the city government of Minneapolis, Minnesota as well as by Hennepin County, Minnesota. The structure has served as mainly local government offices since it was built, and today the building is 60 percent occupied by the city and 40 percent occupied by the County. The building is jointly owned by the city and county and managed by the Municipal Building Commission. The Commission consists of the chair of the County Board, the mayor of the City of Minneapolis, a member of the County Board and a member of the Minneapolis City Council. The County Board chair serves as the president of the Commission and the mayor serves as the vice president. The building bears a striking resemblance to the city hall buildings in Cincinnati and Toronto. The City Hall and Courthouse was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1974.
context_section_description: Inside, on the 4th Street side, there is a large five-story rotunda including a large sculpture, "Father of Waters," by American sculptor Larkin Goldsmith Mead who lived in Florence, Italy at the time. According to legend, rubbing his big toe brings good luck. It was placed inside the building in 1906.
  Originally, the building had a red terracotta roof, but it began leaking so a copper roof was installed. At 180,000 pounds (81.6 t), it was said to be the largest in the country. The copper has since acquired its characteristic green patina.
  Over the years, some of the larger spaces in the building were subdivided to make more office space. In the 1940s and 1950s, the city built a mezzanine floor over its side of the 3rd floor, and the county built an annex building on its side of the courtyard. In 1981, a committee plan recommended converting some of the spaces back to their original design and that other spaces be converted to a more open design with offices fronting onto the courtyard instead of the current corridors.  The plan also called for the annex building in the courtyard to be demolished, the courtyard domed, and the Father of Waters sculpture moved in there.  Many of these aspects of the plan were rejected, although restoration of certain historic spaces has been completed.
caption: The "Father of Waters" sculpture
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