Norwalk City Hall found itself in a bit of a jam this past April, when it realized that its historic 80 year old cupola was looking rather terrible in its old age. So, city officials decided that it was time for the old apex of City Hall to get a facelift and new coat of paint. According to the article, New England LLC did the construction on the project, repainting portions of the tower and restoring some of the damaged woodwork around the cupola. They also removed whatever lead paint was left around the peak. Strangely, the copper portion of the

The Norwalk City Hall cupola during restoration.

cupola was not part of the overall restoration, being left oxidized and green in color, possibly to give the pinnacle of the building an antique look.

The article talks about the history of Norwalk’s city hall, which was previously a high school until the 1980s. It also says that minor work was performed in 1999.

So after a few months of work and close to $150,000 spent on architectural integrity, the top of Norwalk’s city hall has a nice-looking white cupola. (The picture to the left was taken during the restoration. Unfortunately, if you follow the previous link, you’ll see that more than 71% of voters in a poll decided that the project was “not critical.” The project gave 6 people jobs and put them to work in this tough economy, but it still wasn’t favorable with online voters. Can’t cupolas get any love?

However, it seems that Connecticut loves fixing up its cupolas, regardless of negative public opinion. Recently, building conservation expert John Canning has been working at restoring cupolas (and some decorative paint work) at Waterbury City Hall, in Waterbury, CT. In the end, there seems to be some hope for cupolas, even if taking care of them is very, very expensive.