Wilshaw County Town Hall and Old Ely

Thanks to all who voted in the Pub Name Poll! The winning name was “The Cornerstone”, suggested by Lilymayrose. I think it’s a very fitting moniker for the place!

Now for the second community lot in town — the town hall/police station. I hadn’t planned on building one originally (at least not for awhile), but I wanted to use certain aspects of Twallan’s Register and Careers mods, so I had to bust my “no rabbithole” rule and put at least a City Hall rabbithole rug somewhere in town.

Ely Corners

It was constructed not long after the 1920s-style homes in Ely Corners, during a slight population boom in Wilshaw County, so it’s bigger than it needs to be (the town aldermen were very optimistic at the time). I went for a 1930s art deco feel, inspired by the old city hall in my hometown (which has been converted into apartments).

Ely Corners

It didn’t really fit in with the buildings over in Ely Corners, so it’s over on the other side of the hill, in my “industrial” section. Eventually this area of town will also be the home of the old lumberyard, the old train depot (now a coffeehouse/recording studio), and some old worker houses. I’ll probably put a junkyard over there, too, and maybe a seedy salon/tattoo parlor, just for kicks. Whew, this project is getting bigger by the minute.

Ely Corners

Here’s the front lobby. I figure I can put pics of wanted criminals in the digital picture frames, but since I don’t have any criminals yet, they remain empty.

Ely Corners

Elevators are a pain in the heinder, but since there’s nothing upstairs but a rabbithole rug, and the elevators look very art-deco-cool, I thought I’d plop one in there.

Ely Corners

They haven’t renovated the place in years, so everything looks slightly shabby. There is a coffee machine, though! Gotta have coffee for the sheriff, right?

Ely Corners

Here’s the sheriff’s office. Not much there since I didn’t want people swarming the place to read books and whatnot.

Ely Corners

As it is, I may have to make the place “No Visitors Allowed” since the good people of Ely Corners like to turn on the sheriff’s radio and dance around his office or use the jail cell as a restroom (I almost snapped a picture of that, but they just looked so undignified, I couldn’t do it.)

Ely Corners

I’ll probably end up just using the building for story purposes every so often, if someone needs to meet with the sheriff or the mayor, or if the board of aldermen need to hold council meeting.

Here’s the mayor’s desk:

Ely Corners

And the meeting room, which can also be used by the sheriff if he needs a private place to question a witness or something:

Ely Corners

As I mentioned, the upstairs is empty except for the rabbithole rug, but people still like to check it out.

Ely Corners

(continued on Page 2)

24 thoughts on “Wilshaw County Town Hall and Old Ely

  1. Obviously I love the choice of pub name (Do I get a rosette? Like they give horses for jumping fences????) – and I really like what you’ve done with the city hall. Especially the interior. It looks incredibly authentic and musty.

    It’s also great how Shane has stayed in character and continues to bore the knickers off everyone (except us). I think you’ve taken on a mammoth task with this neighbourhood, but now that you’ve got us all hooked, you’re just going to have to give up your real life and persevere with this one ;)

  2. Aww the Tragic Clown didn’t win (my vote, lol I just kept getting mental images of all your sims getting sloshed and being all ‘tragic’ and emotional), that’s ok though becuase I think The Cornerstone is a fine name for the pub anyways (and probably a bit more dignified!) Your town hall looks awesome, especially the jail cell – gee I seem to have a bit of a sadistic streak today wanting to see your sims drunk, disorderly and locked up :P Ohhh I love the history your giving to the town too with Ely and the mine!!

  3. Again with the chuckling all the way through. :D I felt a little sorry for poor Polly going to such lengths and not getting any notice for it. At least she has some rocks for pocket change. ;)

    “And her dad was off doing sheriffy stuff, like getting slapped around by one of the Chapelton teens…”

    Bwaaa haa haaaaaaaaaaa! You kill me, babe.

  4. I am just so interested in this project, building from the ground up, so to speak. When you play one family, do the rest of the family’s lives go on (so that you have to deal with any unexpected things)? I’m curious about your Twallan mod settings I suppose. I think you mentioned in another post that you are playing them on super-long life spans. Is that to keep your cast of characters where you see them being?

    • Hi gethane, you’re right, I’m playing them on Epic lifespan, so they won’t age up too quickly while I’m playing my rotation of houses. I also had Twallan’s SP set to “Stasis” for everyone until I realized that they won’t age when in Stasis, either, and I want them to age (just very very slowly). So I had to turn off Stasis and just make sure that I toggled off options like “Allow Affair”, “Allow Breakup”, and so on. Basically the only thing my families should be doing when I’m not playing them is aging and making friendships. Everything else is disabled. I don’t even want them skilling when I’m not in charge of them, because I don’t want their skills to increase too quickly. I’m not really interested in seeing how quickly I can get through the generations — I want to really explore and get to know these characters, and see if any interesting storylines develop while I play.

    • Hi Hannah, sorry to hear about all the trouble you’re having with your game. :-/ Did you ever figure out the issue?

  5. You did a great job of making it look like your hometown’s city hall! :D Pretty front lobby. I love the kitteh statue. *grins*

    Coffee and donughts, the staple of any good diet. *wink* I think the sheriff’s office looks fantastic.

    They’re using the jail cell of a restroom? *snickersnorts* You have to take a picture of that!

    The mayor’s office, while small, is very dignified looking.

    Rabbithole rug? *frowns* I’m guessing that’s a mod so that the building you create can act as whatever the game needs it to be?

    *Waves hello to Evelyn* I’m looking forward to seeing her home and her inn. :) Is Shane boring her to tears about this toothpaste saga? Or is he leaning in too close and she’s covering her nose so she doesn’t have to smell his breath? *giggles* Is there no “turn free will off” command in Story Progression? So that you can get them to stay still long enough to do what you need, then turn it back on.

    Congrats on the baby-on-the-way, Sothers!

    Aww, Shane is such a sweetie. *blinks at Polly* I don’t think I blame him for not hugging her, not with an expression like that! *backs slowly away* Hehe, I’m not surprised she’s rebelling like that. *grins*

    Wow, really? Are the Chapeltons THAT rich, that a teen can slap the sherrif and get away with it? (And their clothes totally look like rich stuck-up people’s clothing! *giggles*)

    I hope Polly doesn’t get herself into trouble she can’t get back out of. Heh, clearly, if she’s wandering around a spooky place like that at night by herself, she’s brave and a daredevil. (That’s synonymous with foolish, right? *wink*)

    Huh, I don’t think I’ve ever had a sim wish for a sleepover before. For someone to move in, yes (even when said person is ALREADY moved in), but never for a sleepover. Oh, I take that back… one of my first families, both the teenage son and his mom wanted his girlfriend to sleep over.

    I’m glad you’re still having so much fun creating this world and exploring the families! It’s been fun to see them as they unfold. :-D

    • Yup, you’re right about the rabbithole rug. It’s so we can make our own custom versions of the city hall, school, etc. — plop the rug down and the Sims will disappear into the rug as they do into the rabbithole city hall, school, etc. Very handy if you want to customize your town.

      As for getting Shane and Evelyn to stay put, I could turn off free will, but since that option only affects Active Sims, as soon as you switch to a new active Sim, the other Sim becomes inactive and is controlled by the game. So I’d sit Shane down, and then as soon as I made Evelyn active so I could sit her down, Shane, now inactive and therefore controlled by the game, would wander off, and I couldn’t do anything about it. :-p

      Thanks as always for your wonderfully in-depth comments! :)

  6. Hehehe, boring Shane is so much fun to watch and I LIKE his place of business – you really did a fab job on that hon. It’s nice to see the day to day shenanigans your sims get into. Poor Polly (I feel like I should offer her a cracker lol), she got robbed of a hug and went all thuggish on her family – too bad they didn’t notice. rofl

    This town just keeps getting better and everyone of your sims are interesting and fun to watch. I’m split now between who I like best. Although, Shane is definitely the beef-cake of the moment for now. *snickers* And with that rather sad comment, I shall say good-bye. :D

    • Thanks so much, Velvet! LOL at Shane being the beefcake of the moment…I think at some point I will have to do a “Men of Ely Corners” calendar just for kicks…hehe.

  7. Well, it definitely looks like a police station! :O) I’m still trying to see the town hall of it though. Most townhalls I’m used to seeing have gold domed roofs. *LOL* Maybe I’m too used to cityhalls. ;O) I love all the little personal touches that you place in it. It really makes it seem like people actually work there! It actually kind of reminds me of a precinct in Law and Order or CSI! *thumbs up* Too bad you can’t just put a “No Visitors” jail cell door in there so the good people of Ely Corners didn’t keep using the room when they weren’t guilty of anything. *snicker* Where’s the interrogation room? You know … one of those rooms with the double-sided mirror and no windows? Your room looks like a conference room – one of those rooms where the police would take the family to inform them that their child/spouse/relative had been murdered. ;O}

    Regarding your sims not doing what you tell them to do when you’re trying to stage pictures in the police section of the building … why don’t you just temporarily reduce their free will down to nothing? That might help! :O) Congrats on their being a new Sothers on the way.

    I’m highly amused by Polly running around at who knows what time of the evening … just to collect butterflies (although, are you sure that was a butterfly and not a moth?) … and rocks. And her parents didn’t even notice!!! *GASP* So what was that rock she managed to pick up that had the blue gems? Something cool??

    Great update as always!

    • Yeah, I deviated from the usual “town hall” style for a couple of reasons. For one, I didn’t want it to look like EA’s city halls — I wanted mine to have its own flavor. And for two, I’ve always like the old city hall in my town, so that’s why I used it as inspiration. And there’s no interrogation room because my town is just too small to really need one. Think of it like a town in the Old West where the sheriff just has a little office with a desk and a jail cell in it. :) The conference room can double as an interrogation room if need be; my rooms/buildings have to be multipurpose in this tiny town! But your feedback really made me think, and I might just make the sheriff’s office a separate little building anyway. So…stay tuned. :) As for the free will issue, I have addressed that in my reply to Aeronwy above. :)

      The rock Polly picked up…well, to be honest I didn’t look to see what kind of rock it was! I don’t even know if Polly will send them away to be cut, as she doesn’t have any money…but maybe her parents can give her an allowance and she can save up.

  8. The police station looks lovely, I might steal ideas from you from this post because I’m not happy with my own police station at the moment and want to re-do it. The idea of having the picture frames and having criminal faces on them is just brilliant, and one of the things I might steal. Any chance of seeing a top down view of the place to see how the rooms are located?

    Why did the police chief got slapped?

    Have you thought of using the lockable doors from MTS in the cell? I know they won’t look right, but at least you can keep the perps in custody, and not having them run around town. The lockable doors are also essential for the gym, if you put the training dummy there, from all the sports equipments, the training dummy is the most attractive for Sims, and if you don’t lock the door to the room it’s in, every single granny in your hood will be a karate expert before the week is over.

    I can’t wait for the next update, I’m extremely interested in how will you operate the hotel.

    How many more community lots will you be adding to the hood before you can start playing for real? And can you show a picture of the town? I would like to see where things are located.

    Sorry for all the question, but I just love your hood and the way it’s developing :)

    • Hi ani_! Feel free to steal any ideas from my site that you find useful; goodness knows I’m stealing ideas from your site right and left. ;) Next time I go in game I’ll take an overview pic of the city hall so you can see the layout. And the police chief got slapped probably because that particular teen is either hot-headed or mean-spirited (or both, I forget!). I just switched to Shane to see what he was doing while Polly snuck out, and the teen girl was in mid-slap! So I have no idea what transpired. Heh. Thanks so much for the tip about the lockable doors. I was thinking of using those in my hotel, too, but I can see how they’ll probably be necessary in the jail as well.

      My list of community lots keeps growing, so I’m not sure when I’ll be ready to finally play. :-/ I still want to build the hotel, a produce stand, a general store, a coffeeshop, a library, a couple of parks, and maybe a school (as I may decide to use the school rabbithole rug after all). I have about 4-5 residential lots to build as well. I wish I had more time in the day! I’ll post a snapshot of what I have so far in my next post. :) Thanks so much for your comments!

  9. *squeals* I <3 Shane!!!
    Erm, what's with the shirt? I mean really, there isnt a law against him working out sans shirt, is there? *giggles*
    Polly, you rebel you!
    You sure had fun and the building came out fabulous!