Port Alberni City Hall

Port Alberni City Hall was officially opened on May 20th, 1959. Along with the Federal Building located opposite City Hall, it represented a new civic core for Port Alberni. This new civic core was created at the height of the city's economic boom, which reached a peak in 1958. After the amalgamation of the twin cities of Alberni and Port Alberni in 1967, the building became the offices for the combined municipality and was one of the symbols of the newly-integrated community.

The building is valued because it maintains continuity with Alberni Valley's past. It stands adjacent to the site of the previous municipal hall, constructed in 1928, which was demolished when the new City Hall was built.

In keeping with the City Hall's role as a monument to local government and civic pride, the landscaped lawns and gardens around the building have been chosen to display items of civic heritage value including the city's war memorial, a section of original old-growth log, a shelter made from timbers from the first sawmill in the Alberni Valley, and a lilac bush propagated from an original plant owned by A. Waterhouse, one of the city's founders.

The building is architecturally important as a fine example of 1950's International style and is one of a pair of buildings architecturally designed to form the city's civic core. Designed by architects Wade, Stockdill and Armour of Victoria, the modern aesthetic of this building reflects the establishment and growth of Port Alberni as a vital and permanent city and as a centre for natural-resource based commercial endeavours and strong community values.