Minneapolis City Hall is a Romanesque Revival building from 1905 on the Government Plaza downtown, built of Ortonville granite in the heavy round-arched style popularised by H.H. Richardson. The exterior is impressive in the way of all serious late-Victorian civic architecture — massive, permanent-looking, and deeply confident in the importance of what goes on inside.
The interior is open to visitors during business hours and includes a rotunda with a grand staircase and mosaic floors, a council chamber with original woodwork, and the Father of Waters statue in the rotunda base — a 1906 marble figure representing the Mississippi River, carved from a 60-ton block of marble that had to be lowered through the roof before the building was finished. Free tours are available on weekday mornings.