After the big fire at the end of the last century, which laid virtually the entire city centre to ashes, the citizens decided to have a new town hall built. The building was to be the pride of the whole county of Holland. It was to put Molendam on the map and demonstrate that the city was a flourishing trading centre. The Mechelse architect Keldermans was instructed to design the building. He made it into a tall, slender town hall with small bulging towers and one high top in its centre. On the side hung a “hangende kaak", a small balcony where people who had committed minor violations of the law were exposed, and on the rear side he erected gallows for hanging serious offenders.

But this is no longer the town hall’s purpose. The gallows has now become a loading platform and the space below is mainly a butter hall. When butter brought to the weighhouse has to be protected on hot summer days and their own awnings are not sufficient, shippers turn to the always-cool vaults below the town hall. Otherwise it is a building for the citizens. Mayor Wolkers van Avezaath lives there with his wife Madelief and their children Freek and Rita. The council meet in the richly decorated council chamber when the dignitaries deliberate over the city’s future. Master of the Mint, Hieronymus Scherff van Andel and Master of the Weighhouse, Jacobus van Cromvoirt have been appointed as aldermen of Molendam and it is actually they who govern the city with a glass of strong Geneva in their hand, which the grocer, Hendricus van Tilborgh, orders directly by boat from Schiedam.

But of course at Christmas the building has a special role to play. In the evenings all the outside lanterns are lit and the lanterns at the windows let their light play over the thick layer of snow covering the square. The mayor has had a huge Christmas tree erected in the square decorated with Chinese lanterns and coloured sweets. Below this is a crib picturing the real Christmas message.  The inhabitants of Molendam have worked hard together to make a wonderful stable from willow twigs and poplar wood and the woman’s guild have made and dressed figures. The sight of the beautiful town hall, the tree and the crib make Christmas complete for the inhabitants of Molendam.