Old City Hall (La Vielille Mairie)

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