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The history of Taichung’s municipal development began in the late Qing period under Liu Ming-chuan, when the largest prefectural seat in all of Taiwan—the Taiwan-fu walled city—was built here, originally intended to serve as the provincial capital and to control both north and south. After the island was ceded under the 1895 Treaty of Shimonoseki, the Japanese placed the “Taiwan Civil Administration Branch” inside the north-western cluster of official buildings within the small north gate of the Taiwan-fu walled city. With subsequent administrative reorganisations, during the Meiji era it was variously called Taichung City Office and Taichung Prefecture Office. When, in the Taishō period, the new Taichung Prefecture building was begun in phases, this same district became the development base, and the Qing-era yamens were demolished from the outside in and from east to west to make way for modern government offices. The Prefecture Hall belongs to the “permanent prefectural building” programme of the Japanese era; it was designed and built at the same time as the former Taipei Prefecture Hall (today’s Control Yuan) and the former Tainan Prefecture Hall (today’s National Centre for Cultural Heritage Research), making the three sister works the newly constructed halls for the top-tier prefectures of the day. Together with the Taiwan Government-General building (today’s Presidential Office), they mark the transition from temporary timber structures, through early brick-and-timber hybrid construction, to the mature phase dominated by reinforced-brick construction, and they are representative large-scale examples of Japanese-era official architecture, playing an important role in Taiwan’s architectural history. Compared with the surviving sister buildings, the Taichung Prefecture Hall retains the greater part of its original fabric in good condition, giving it high preservation value and significance for the study of modern architectural history; it has also continued to function as the local administrative centre and stands as a witness to regional historical events and change, and is therefore provisionally registered as a historic building. Construction began in 1912; the first phase was completed in 1913, and after four expansions the present scale was finished in 1934. It was designed by the Japanese architect Moriyama Matsunosuke. The Taichung Prefecture administered Taichung City, Changhua County and Nantou County, while the Taichung City Office was the actual city government. After World War II the Taichung City Government moved into the building, where it remains; the Taichung Prefecture Hall itself has been designated a municipal monument. The overall design is in the French Mansart style, the main façade featuring a conspicuous Mansart roof. The L-shaped, two-storey block faces east; a tower projects from the centre, and corner pavilions at each end of the façade knit the two wings together. The ground-floor entrance vestibule has Doric columns, the first floor Ionic, and set-back balconies emphasise the play of light and shade across the elevation. To proclaim its political rank and urban importance, and to accord with the city-street plan, the main entrance was placed on the key street corner—a hallmark of Japanese-era government buildings.