Dedicated on Washington's birthday, February 22, 1894, Ramona Town Hall was given to the townspeople of Nuevo, as Ramona was then known, by rancher and financier Augustus Barnett and his wife Martha. Believing that the local schoolhouse was not a proper place for dances and other social events, Barnett donated $17,000 in gold coin to erect a building that could serve as the community's social center as well as host a library. Designed by noted San Diego architect William S. Hebbard and built by T.O. Samuels on two lots donated by real estate developer and surveyor Milton Santee, the adobe building with brick veneer in the Romanesque / Mission Revival style is considered one of the largest freestanding adobe structures in the southwest. Santee soon successfully lobbied the town to change its name to Ramona in order to capitalize on the popularity of Helen Hunt Jackson's literary character of the same name. Over its long history, the building has served the community as the home of the town's library, movie theater, high school, bank, dance hall, justice court, and annual turkey day celebration, and numerous organizations, including the chamber of commerce, Masonic Lodge, volunteer fire department, and Red Cross, first assembled there.