The History of Warren County, Ohio

Transcription contributed by Martie Callihan 3 December 2004

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In 1855, the Town Council resolved to build a new market house, with quarters for the fire department. The old market house stood in the middle of Silver, at the intersection of Mechanic street. The site selected for the new structure was the southwest corner, at the intersection of the same streets. The old town hall being inadequate to the wants of the village, the plan was devised of building a new public hall, as a second story of the new market house.

The Town Council were favorably disposed toward the proposition, but great opposition to it was soon manifested among a considerable portion of the citizens. The question being hotly contested, the Council ordered the matter to be submitted to a vote of the electors of the town. The election was held September 8, 1855, and resulted in the following vote: Hall, yes, 118; hall, no, 129; blank, 3; total, 250. The friends of the proposed hall then formed a stock company, and raised the money for building the hall in connection with the new market and engine house. The town became a stockholder in this company to the amount of $1,500, or one half of the estimated cost of completing the hall. This action of the Council in making the town a stockholder in a joint stock company was in violation of law, but no effort was made to prevent this union of public and private money, and thus was completed a hall, belonging in part to the town and in part to private citizens. The new hall was dedicated with a festival, given on the evening of December 24. 1856, by the Franklin Independent Fire Company. On the 10th of the following month, the stockholders met and christened the hall Washington Hall, and agreed upon

In the year 1874, the citizens of the town were divided into two parties on the question of a tax for the enlargement and repair of this hall. The tax was advocated by one party as a necessary and proper means of making suitable provision for accommodating the increased attendance at the normal school, which institution, it was alleged, would be removed to some other locality if such accommodations were not, furnished. By the other party it was argued that taxation for such a purpose was improper, and that the proposed extension to the length of Washington Hall was an ill advised mode of accomplishing the purpose. The contest waxing warm, the question was submitted to a vote of the people at an election ordered by the Council. The result of the vote was a very large majority in favor of the tax. The Council then assessed the tax necessary for the proposed extension. The collection of this tax was enjoined by the Court of Common Pleas on the petition of a large number of the taxpayers of the town. The petition for the injunction stated that the tax, while professedly for the purpose of providing public buildings for the town, was really designed to furnish rooms for the normal school, and thus to aid a private citizen in his private business, and that the hall on which it was proposed to expend the money was owned in part, by private persons. The court, without passing on the question as to what were the rights of the town in the hall, held that the proposed tax was clearly in violation of the provision of the constitution against taxation in aid of joint-stock companies, and must therefore be restrained. No further efforts were made toward extending Washington Hall.