The tiny settlement of Cedar Hill was established in 1846, and Abraham and William Hart donated the land for the town and the square in 1847. The streets around the town square became the hub of local government, business, and social activity, but the square itself remained undeveloped until 1962, more than 100 years after the donation. In a controversial move, city officials chose the square as the site for a multi-purpose municipal services building, and on June 21, 1962, the city dedicated the new shared facility on Cedar Hill Town Square. The X-shaped building, in the shadow of the towers, housed government offices, the library, a modern three-bay fire station, and a state-of-the-art communication contraption atop the structure. Its central tower, a miniature version of the towers, at first supported the fire department warning sirens, but the sirens only brought firefighters to the station, and City Secretary Marie Vincent then had to hang out the window and yell the fire's address to them. Originally twice as tall, the antenna was blown over by a gust of wind in 1992, and only half was returned to the top of the building. As technology advanced, the tower acquired oddly shaped equipment, while City Hall below continued with everyday municipal business. In August 2000, Dr. Jannay Valdez of DeSoto reported seeing a UFO near the towers speeding through the sky toward town; although Police Chief Steve Rhodes reported no other sightings that night, she sent her account to the International UFO Museum and Research Center in Roswell, New Mexico. Babe's founder, Paul Vinyard, has carefully preserved the contraption.