Paducah’s City Hall could soon be on the National Register of Historic Places, which would help fund its renovation. Downtown Development Specialist Melinda Winchester presents the building to the Kentucky Heritage Council on December 12th.
Winchester is nominating City Hall under the register’s criteria for structures that have distinctive characteristics or are the work of a master. Paducah historian John E.L. Robertson says prominent mid-century architect Edward Durell Stone built city hall.
“We were fortunate that they got someone of that caliber, and he in turn took an example from the American Embassy in India as I remember it, and used that for his basic plan.”
Stone also designed New York City’s Radio City Music Hall and the John F. Kennedy Center. If the nomination is successful, historic tax credits through the state would be used to fund the building’s 18 million dollar renovation. Earlier this year, Paducah officials considered another option to build a new city hall entirely.
