August 22 marked the 165th anniversary of the birth of Mary Elizabeth Hawley, Newtown’s benefactress who was born in 1857 and died in 1930.

In honor of her birthday, the Edmond Town Hall Board of Managers engaged with the community by hosting multiple building tours on Sunday, August 28.

Operations Manager Sheila Torres greeted everyone in the Mary Hawley Room, located off the historic building’s main lobby.

She prefaced the tour by saying, “We have always celebrated Mary Hawley’s birthday and are so grateful to her for this beautiful building and all the gifts she has bestowed upon the community. This year we decided to do something a little different and give people a tour of the building instead of just having artifacts out.”

Another first was that the celebration was not being done on her actual birthday in order to have the event on a weekend.

“You’re part of history,” Torres told the group.

After everyone perused the portraits and documents in the Mary Hawley Room, Torres led the group outside to look at the right side of the building’s facade.

There, behind some bushes, was a gray cornerstone that had 1929 engraved on it.

Torres told The Newtown Bee, “It’s where I chose to start the tour, because we have a photograph of Mary Hawley bending down near the stone. The photograph is framed in the inner lobby of our theater.”

The significance of the stone may seem small at first glance, but it was one of the last times Hawley was able to enjoy her donation to the town.

“The building was completed in 1930, and unfortunately, she passed away before it was completed. The building was opened on August 22, 1930,” Torres said on the tour.

She pointed out the building’s symmetrical Georgian architecture before leading the group back inside by going up the right staircase.

“Mary Hawley was a very generous person,” Torres said. “Her intention was to have the government offices consolidated, because at the time the offices were scattered in different parts of the town.”

With that in mind, she showed a corner room that served as the town’s post office from 1930 to 1980. It was located there before moving to 6 Queen Street, into the building currently occupied by My Place Restaurant.

“After the post office moved out, the space was reconfigured to house the First Selectman … until [the town offices] moved out in 2009 to Fairfield Hills Campus,” Torres said.

As the tour made its way back toward the main lobby, Torres shared that the building was named after Mary Hawley’s paternal grandfather, Judge William Edmond, who was a patriot in the Revolutionary War, a congressman, and lawyer.

“She was very proud of him, obviously, and named the building after him,” Torres said.

She pointed out how the lobby still has original materials that are “really of a high standard” including its chandeliers, Tiffany plaques, and light fixtures.

The high quality materials continue into the theater, where there is even a Knabe grand piano behind the stage. The piano has been at Edmond Town Hall since it opened nearly 100 years ago.

Today, the theater has modern elements such as laser lighting, LEDs, and a retractable movie screen.

When the tour traveled upstairs, Torres explained that the Alexandria Room was a Georgian-style ballroom.

She noted that at the time it was designed, it was “a fad to recreate historical rooms.” As a result, the Edmond Town Hall’s Alexandria Room was an exact replica of The Metropolitan Museum of Art’s room inspired by Gadsby’s Tavern in Alexandria, Virginia.

Outside the Alexandria Room, Torres pointed out the murals on the walls made by David Merrill that were finished in the late 1980s.

“The murals depict the history of our buildings and people,” she said.

One of the paintings on the wall in the right staircase is of a statue located outside the building. It is of an eagle on a rock with a plaque that reads, “In memory of Francis Hidu. A loyal friend of Edmond Town Hall for over fifty years. D. 1988.”

Torres explained that Hidu was a caretaker for Edmond Town Hall and that the artistic tribute allows him to continue to watch over the town hall “like an eagle.”

Other aspects of the building that Torres included in the tour was of the addition, the 1950s original section, behind the movie theater screen, the basement, and the gymnasium.

“We received a lot of positive feedback from among the 70 or so people who attended the open house,” Torres told The Newtown Bee on August 30. “It was great to see such a mix of people, from longtime residents to recent Newtowners, to people from other towns and even a Hawley descendant.”

Reporter Alissa Silber can be reached at alissa@thebee.com.