Eagan's Town Hall has stood at the corner of Pilot Knob and Wescott Road since 1914 as the town's oldest surviving government building. Built for $1,047 on approximately 1/3 of an acre purchased from Michael Englert, it was placed as near as possible to the center of the township and served Township meetings, elections, court proceedings, and other gatherings until 1965. Heated by a wood-burning pot-bellied stove even into the 1950s and 1960s, it had ten rows of unpainted 12-foot plank benches, and everyone present at meetings voted by show of hands on the budget and township operations; evidence suggests women in Eagan had local voting rights before statewide suffrage. Voters cast ballots in eight booths partitioned with flour-sack privacy curtains and narrow shelves for marking ballots with pencils tethered to the back wall. After a new City Hall was built across the road to the north in 1965, the building was fitted with a garage door for street maintenance equipment, though its original front windows, door, and wood flooring were retained. Residents saved it from demolition in the 1970s, and in 1988 it was moved back 100 feet because widening Pilot Knob Road had left it too close to the road. In 1990, a Celebrate Minnesota Grant of $7,500, a $17,500 donation, and labor from the Eagan Rotary Club funded refurbishment under the supervision of Ted Wachter, Historical Society Chair and longtime Councilmember. The Eagan Historical Society operates the building as a museum. The site also honors Tom Hedges, Eagan's first City Administrator, who arrived in 1976 when the city had 16,000 residents and 40 employees and served nearly 37 years as Eagan grew to 65,000 residents and more than 235 employees; he guided Eagan's transformation from a rural township, mentored more than 40 future city managers or department directors, served 13 City Councils and eight mayors, was honored with Tom Hedges Day on May 11, 2001, and retired in 2013 after more than 1,600 City Council meetings. Funding for the Tom Hedges Plaza at the Town Hall was donated in 2016 by John Nasseff and Helene Houle. In the early morning of September 8, 2013, arsonists set fire to the building, but police officers spotted the fire, the Eagan Fire Department responded quickly, and firefighters saved the structure and much of its original collection. After a two-year restoration that replaced the roof structure, treated interior surfaces for smoke removal, restored original paint colors, and refurbished trim and molding, the 1914 Town Hall was restored.