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On this date 100 years ago, history files tell us, a special election was held so voters could decide whether to approve funds to build a new city hall. It was to be Oakland’s fifth city hall since its founding back in 1852.

The measure to allocate $1.15 million toward constructing a new municipal building did pass, and in due time a competition was held during which 24 of the nation’s foremost architectural firms of the day submitted plans in hopes of winning a $10,000 prize.

Frank Mott, Oakland’s mayor at the time — his tenure lasted from 1905 to 1915 — was the chief campaigner for the civic improvement, and the press eventually would nickname the elegant new structure “Mott’s Wedding Cake.”

The need for a new building reflected Oakland’s tremendous growth in the first years of the new century. In the decade from 1900 to 1910, the city’s population doubled to 150,000. Many thousands of people would permanently relocate in the East Bay after San Francisco was leveled by the 1906 earthquake and fire.

The site chosen was just west of the then-existing City Hall No. 4. A jury, led by noted University of California campus architect John Galen Howard, announced the winning design in July 1910. Henry Hornbostel and George Palmer, of Palmer and Hornbostel architects, were East Coast-based and were the jury’s unanimous choice.

Their entry was truly innovative. The design called for a

12-floor office tower (to accommodate a growing city bureaucracy) set atop a three-story ceremonial base. These lower floors were to house court rooms, the council chamber and a spacious corner office for the mayor, complete with beam ceiling, parquet floor and elegant fireplace.

The top three stories contained the city jail — evidentially a practical afterthought — and a hospital ward, crowned with an ornate terra-cotta lantern and clock tower. It was said that from the clock tower vantage point, one could see 14 other Bay Area cities laid out below.

The plans called for steel frame construction, with creamy white California granite veneer embellished with yet more ornamental terra-cotta friezes consisting of entwining tendrils of grape, fig and olive leaves that were meant to symbolize California’s agricultural abundance. With San Francisco’s destruction fresh in everyone’s mind, Oakland’s new building was designed to be earthquake-and fireproof.

The architects’ design was the first in the country to unite civic ceremonial functions with staff department offices, a concept that would be replicated later in other cities, most notably Los Angeles. When finished, at 343 feet in height, Oakland’s new City Hall would be the tallest building west of the Mississippi, contemporary news accounts stated.

On Oct. 13, 1911, a time capsule containing mementos of the era was sealed into a granite cornerstone laid by President William Howard Taft. The ceremony was followed by a parade along Broadway, where throngs of cheering Oaklanders filled bleachers for a glimpse of their mayor and other dignitaries riding alongside the president.

Mott was said to very pleased with the City Hall design, saying, “This type of building, being out of the original and conventional style, will attract notice everywhere and will put Oakland in the front ranks of modern cities in the magnificence and attractiveness of its chief public building.”

Construction took three years and was completed in 1914, at a final cost of nearly $1.8 million. The old City Hall was torn down, and that site became a public plaza. In the mean time, Mott, a lifelong bachelor in his 40s, proposed to a widow by the name of Gertrude, who was a socialite from San Francisco. Their nuptials were much in the news, and that is when the stately new City Hall earned its famous nick name.

To learn more about Oakland City Hall, sign up for guided tour with the Oakland Tours Program, 510-238-3234.

Reach Annalee Allen at ldmksldy@aol.com.