Old City Hall (La Vielille Mairie)

This small Queen Anne structure was first built as the home site for the original 1898 Bank of Lafayette. The building was built by George Knapp, a notable architect, who built many downtown structures in early Lafayette. By 1905, the Bank of Lafayette had outgrown this building and constructed what came to be known as the Old Guaranty Bank building at 500 Jefferson Street, featured on page 3 in this book. In 1906, La Vieille Mairie building was sold to the town of Lafayette, and it remained the seat of city government for thirty-three years. The entire collection of the city’s early public library was contained in a few bookcases in this building. Also, the entire city jail was housed on site throughout the early 1900s. Foundations of the two small jail cells can still be seen in the property’s rear courtyard.