Manila City Hall

The Manila City Hall at night. © Panoramio/jsantiago

Civic and government edifices built during the American occupation would
always stand out, as it reminds us of the importance of these institutions.
The Manila City Hall is one of the key government buildings constructed in
American Manila.
The Manila City Hall during the Japanese occupation, circa 1942. Photo taken
from the walled city of Intramuros. © Flickr/Beyond Forgetting
 The Manila City Hall during its construction stage, taken from the
Legislative Building along P. Burgos Drive. © Manila Nostalgia/Ingrid Donahue via Lou
Gopal

The Manila City Hall was designed by architect Antonio Toledo and was built
in 1939. The city hall is adorned by a hexagonal tower with three clocks on
three of its facets. After its completion, the building received negative
reviews for its lack of aesthetics, lack of entrances and how the clock
tower was placed.
The elevation plan for the Manila City Hall's iconic clocktower. © Arkitekturang
Filipino
The City Hall's courtyard during the Japanese occupation, circa 1942. © LIFE via
Arkitekturang Filipino

Sadly, the City Hall was not spared from the ravages of war. During the
Battle of Manila, the city hall was heavily damaged from shelling.
 The shelled city hall viewed from Burgos Drive. © Skyscrapercity.com

The city hall after the Battle of Manila in 1945. © Flickr/ Beyond Forgetting
Manila City Hall's tower bombed out by artillery shells during the dying days
of the war in the capital. © Tumblr/MLQ3

After the war, the city hall was rebuilt through the War Reparations program
of the United States and was criticized due to the shape of its floor plan
which looked like a coffin or a shield of the Knights Templar. According to
urban legends, it was made to look like a coffin to pay homage to those who
died during the Battle of Manila.

You know you’re in Manila when that iconic clock tower emerges itself from the hustle
and bustle to tell you the exact local time. The tower, as most of us already know, is the
crowning glory of the City Hall–a historic building that saw Manila’s golden age and how
it went downhill from there.

Strategically placed at a junction which leads to three bridges (namely, Quiapo, Santa
Cruz, and Binondo), the Manila City Hall houses the mayor’s office and other essential
departments of the city government. It’s a common knowledge that the present-day City
Hall was just a reconstruction of the 1930s building destroyed during WWII. However,
the original Manila City Hall is quite older than most people think.
 Also Read: 12 Random Facts About Manila That Will Blow Your Mind

The original Manila City Hall, circa 1910. Source: Landmarks of Manila, 1571-1930 by

Visitacion R. De la Torre, page 19.

Manila City Hall, minus the clock tower.

In 1901, the original Manila City Hall was built at Concepcion Street (now Natividad
Almeda-Lopez) in Ermita–not too far from the present-day building in Padre Burgos
Avenue.

Also Read: The Oldest Known Photos of the Philippines Ever Taken
According to the book “Landmarks of Manila, 1571-1930” by Visitacion R. De la Torre,
the three-story City Hall–which was made of Oregon pine–“stood then on filled ground,
taking up one third of the area occupied by the present building.” It was constructed
under the administration of Arsenio Cruz Herrera, the first Filipino mayor of Manila.
Manila City Hall, circa 1905. Photo Credit: Otto Gmur Collection, Filipinas Heritage Library

After several decades, the wooden structure had fallen into decay. In 1932, for instance,
then City Engineer Santiago Artiaga had the floor reinforced and prevented people from
overcrowding the hall and corridors because “the structure supporting the hall where the
sessions of the municipal board are held was on the verge of collapse.”
TOP: Original illustration of Manila City Hall from The Pacific Commercial Advertiser, October 1905. BOTTOM:

Original illustration of Manila City Hall from The Salt Lake Herald, August 1905.

Wrong Timing.

To save it from imminent deterioration, the old building had to be demolished and
replaced by a new one. Designed by architect Antonio Toledo, the brand new edifice–
now adorned with a hexagonal clock tower–was finished and inaugurated just before
the outbreak of WWII.

READ: 20 Beautiful Old Manila Buildings That No Longer Exist

Needless to say, the new Manila City Hall was built at the right place but at the wrong
time. It unfortunately became one of the casualties during the Liberation in February
1945. Through the collaboration of the United States Army and the city government,
however, the Manila City Hall was able to rise from the ashes. The reconstruction
project brought a new building with a “total floor area of 8,422 square meters, some 200
rooms and uniform windows all over.”

War-torn Manila City Hall, Manila, Philippines 1945. Photo Credit: John Tewell via Flickr.

Moreover, the addition of the east wing enabled the City Hall to accommodate other
offices. The Big Ben-inspired clock tower, on the other hand, had earned the
moniker “international clock” from frustrated Manileños because it often displayed four
different time zones. Thankfully, it underwent rehabilitation in 2000 when then Mayor
Lito Atienza found the dysfunctional clock as “embarrassing” for it was also “a reflection
of the performance of the city government.”
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Indeed, the Manila City Hall is a symbol as well as a reflection of the local leadership.
But while this famous edifice has successfully transformed into a concrete structure, the
same amount of change cannot be said for the city government.
The Manila City Hall today. Via Wikimedia Commons.