Editor’s note: The years of Clyde Caldart’s service as mayor is corrected in this version.

POULSBO — July 18 is D-Day — Demolition Day — for the old Poulsbo City Hall, 19050 Jensen Way.

The building will be torn down, beginning with the interior, to make room for apartments.

The old city hall was Poulsbo’s first, built in 1939 or 1940, according to the Poulsbo Historical Society. Prior to that, the City Council met at the business office or store of whomever was mayor.

The building was expanded in 1956 to include the fire station, municipal court, and some county offices. The city moved into the new City Hall in November 2010, and civic life at 19050 Jensen Way ended after a 70-year run.

Depending on your age, you may remember paying your utility bills here by dropping a check in the drop box. You visited here to get a permit for that home addition. Your errant relative went before the judge in the municipal court; signage still points the way.

Perhaps you made a wish and tossed a coin into the fountain dedicated to civic booster Ida Knudson (1898-1967), who was described as “a one-woman clearinghouse of caring for the community” in the book “Spirit of Poulsbo.”

If you or a friend or relative had a city job, you may recall when a seagull dropped a shell down a plumbing vent and caused a flood.

Twelve of the city’s 21 mayors governed Poulsbo from 19050 Jensen Way, from S.P. Jensen (1938-1952) to Becky Erickson, whose first year in office (2010) saw the move from the old city hall to the new.

Whatever your age, you’d recognize the names of some of those mayors: Raab Park is named for Frank Raab, mayor from 1960-69. Maurice Lindvig,  mayor from 1969-1976, is the namesake of Lindvig Way; the Viking sculpture in Muriel Iverson Williams Waterfront Park also honors him. Caldart Avenue is named for Clyde Caldart, mayor from 1976-81.

Today, the old city hall is a remnant of its old self. Peek through the dusty windows and you’ll see falling ceiling tiles, rooms full of debris, and yellowed signs.

Outside is another matter.

In front, someone has painted yellow footprints leading from the front door out onto the sidewalk.

Around back, graffitti covers some of the walls.

The shrubs along the rotting boardwalk to the back door are so overgrown it’s almost impossible to get through. The patch of lawn is weedy and dying.

On the sidewalk next to the entrance to the municipal court, a faded American flag on a skinny water-pipe flag pole leans against the wall where someone left it.

Having outlived its usefulness, it is time for the flag, like the old building, to go — hopefully, with some measure of dignity and respect for their history.

ONLINE: Do you have a favorite memory of Poulsbo’s old city hall? Share it on the North Kitsap Herald’s Facebook page.

The front of the old city hall, which will soon be razed to make way for new apartments (Terryl Asla / Herald)

A seagull was once blamed for causing a flood in the old city hall after it dropped a clamshell down a vent pipe. (Terryl Asla / Herald)

The back of the old city hall is now weedy and overgrown. (Terryl Asla / Herald)