Prior to 1936, West Linn’s city offices were housed in one room of the train station for the Willamette Falls Railway.
Willamette Falls Railway station, c1909 (Historic Photo Archive)
The interurban line was shut down in 1930 and the station torn down in 1936 to make way for a new building that would become the City Hall. It was a Works Progress Administration project. When the new building was dedicated by Mayor Frank A. Hammerle in 1936, the city’s population was just 2,000.
West Linn City Hall, c1936 (Old Oregon Photos)
The ground floor housed a grocery store run by Bud Heath and a post office. Municipal offices were upstairs, as well as the library when it opened in 1939.
West Linn City Hall, c1983 (Oregon State Historic Preservation Office)
The post office got its own building and moved out in 1956, and the police department took over the entire ground floor. In 1979 the library moved into bigger quarters at the Bolton Fire Station. In 1999 the building was decommission as City Hall and turned wholly over to the police department. The various city offices that had been scattered amongst various buildings moved into the new City Hall on Salamo Road.
Current City Hall on Salamo Road
The West Linn Police Department still occupies the old brick building, although a new police station is in the process of being built and is scheduled to be completed in the spring of 2014.
The old City Hall in 2012, still occupied by the police department
Location of the old West Linn City Hall and current police department:
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