{"nrhp_refnum":"95001277","name":"Western Town Hall","other_names":["Liberty Hall"],"category":"building","location":{"address":"Main St. at jct. with Stokes--Westernville Rd.","address_restricted":false,"city":"Westernville","county":"Oneida County","state":"NY","lat":43.308117379000066,"lon":-75.38059243899994,"geom_source":"nps_gis"},"listed_date":"1995-11-07","is_nhl":false,"nhl_designated_date":null,"areas_of_significance":["Entertainment/Recreation","Architecture"],"significance_levels":["local"],"summary":{"what_it_is":"A two-story, gable-roofed timber-frame community hall at Main Street and the Stokes-Westernville Road in Westernville, Oneida County, New York. It was built in 1911 as \"Liberty Hall\" by local barn framers Fred and Frank Thrasher, using parts of a dismantled hotel from Delta.","why_significant":"The nomination argues it is an intact, representative early 20th century social gathering hall. It is tied to the history of Westernville and the lost hamlet of Delta, whose Empire Hotel supplied framing, moldings, doors and windows. It served for decades as the area's main place for dances, shows and public events, and now serves as the town hall.","narrative":"Westernville's town hall began as a hotel in the hamlet of Delta. Built around 1850 on the Black River Canal, the Empire Hotel was acquired by the state in 1910 when Delta was flooded to create Delta Lake. A group of departing residents, the Friends of Liberty Hall, bought the building for $2,500, and local barn framers Fred and Frank Thrasher took it apart and hauled it to Westernville by horse-drawn wagon. In 1911 they built a new two-story clapboard hall on a limestone foundation, reusing timber, moldings, doors, window casings and a mantel from the hotel. It was not a replica of the hotel. Named Liberty Hall for General William Floyd, it hosted dances, dinners, variety shows and political rallies until it was declared unsafe in 1960. The Town of Western bought it in 1962 for the original price and still uses it for offices, meetings and occasional events in the second-floor auditorium with its vaulted ceiling and stage.","period_of_significance":"1911","architect_builder":"Fred and Frank Thrasher (builders, local barn framers); the architect field is listed as N/A","architectural_style":"Early 20th Century Revival / Classical Revival","criteria":["A","C"],"status_note":"In use as the Western Town Hall, with town offices and meeting rooms on the first floor and an occasionally used auditorium upstairs.","vacant_flag":false,"machine_generated":true,"model":"claude-sonnet-5-5","prompt_version":"v1.0-2026-10-29","generated_at":"2026-10-29 02:51:50.217516-05","source_pdf":"https://s3.amazonaws.com/NARAprodstorage/lz/electronic-records/rg-079/NPS_NY/95001277.pdf"},"photo":{"url_800":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/media/95001277/af9af9c5d1-800.webp","url_1600":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/media/95001277/af9af9c5d1-1600.webp","licence":"CC BY-SA 2.0","author":"Doug Kerr from Albany, New York, United States","credit_html":"<a href=\"https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Western_Town_Hall_Mar_11.jpg\" rel=\"noopener\">Doug Kerr from Albany, New York, United States</a>, <a href=\"https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.0\" rel=\"license noopener\">CC BY-SA 2.0</a>, via Wikimedia Commons","source_page":"https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Western_Town_Hall_Mar_11.jpg"},"district":null,"sources":{"nps_snapshot_date":"2026-05-22","nara_catalog":"https://catalog.archives.gov/id/75320283","wikipedia":"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Western_Town_Hall","wikidata":"https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q7988386"},"indexable":true,"url":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/new-york/oneida-county/western-town-hall-95001277/"}