Camden City Hall was built in 1956. A fairly modern building for the historic city, it is capped with a replica of a life-size weathervane depicting Catawba King Haigler (also spelled Hagler). King Haigler is known as the “Patron Saint of Camden” for his aid and friendship towards the white settlers in Pine Tree Hill, as the city was known in the 1750s. King Haigler was killed by attacking Shawnee Indians on August 30, 1763.
In 1826 J.B. Mathieu forged an iron effigy of King Haigler, which graced the town market as a weathervane in two different locations before ending up on top of the Camden Opera House in 1886. City Hall utilized the Opera House building in the early twentieth century. When this building was completed in 1956, a replica of the weathervane – standing at five-feet-one-inch – was placed atop its cupola. The original weathervane now rests in the Camden Archives and Museum, replaced in 1996 by a replica on the former Opera House.
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