Buildings

The first community auditorium came into existence with the erection of the Town Hall in 1871. The first floor consisted of offices and store fronts. The third floor was used initially by the Knights of Pythias lodge and a rear room by the Greencastle Band. The second floor contained an auditorium which provided the town with its first public assembly room or theater facility.

Town Hall's auditorium became the center for community entertainment and cultural activities.

Repertory companies stopped in Greencastle regularly to enact the plays of the time. Home talent variety shows, dramatic presentations, concerts, musicals, dances, lectures, and early movies provided entertainment in apparent abundance for the town's people for nearly half a century. School commencement exercises and high school alumni banquets were held here and early Old Home Week activities utilized the facilities of its auditorium.

However, as time passed, the Gem Theater at the McLaughlin Hotel brought its impact on the

Town Hall's usefulness. About 1911 or 1912, Harry McLaughlin built an annex, which included a movie theater, onto the hotel across the street .  The new, modern facility immediately started to attract special events and audiences away from the Town Hall.  In 1913, the Town Hall building was sold.  Within one year of the sale, the building was renovated – creating apartments on the second and third floors, with businesses on the first floor. 

In the remaining decades of the 20th century, the building at 5 South Washington Street was known as the Funk building, the Strite building, and the Ausherman building, those names being those of the owners.  Since the latter part of 2005, the current owner of the building was in the process of restoring the Town Hall building to its original glory by painting the outside wooden architectural features and renovating the 1913-era apartments.  The Town Hall was in the good and caring hands of someone who respected and honored its past.

While the First National Bank building was under construction, a private subscription drive was made by local civic leaders to secure money to purchase the clock for $500 and the bell for $300. Sufficient funds were raised to purchase the clock and construct the tower, and the bank's directors authorized necessary changes in the roof plans to support what has become Greencastle's principal landmark. Maintenance of the clock and its tower is the responsibility of the borough government.