Cape Coral’s then- City Hall building opened for business in 1974. The building, at 815 Nicholas Parkway, went on to become the city’s police and fire departments’ headquarters and currently houses the Public Works Department. CAPE CORAL BREEZE FILE

(Published in the Cape Coral Breeze Aug. 22, 1974)

(The following is the text of the invocation delivered by the Rev. Robert Stevens, pastor of Cape Coral United Methodist Church upon the opening of the then-new City Hall.)

O Lord, our Lord, how excellent is your name in all the earth. We offer praise on this great day because another colony, another group of wanderers, another community of people gathered in one place to make new homes.

Persons became a community — they brought a city into being.

It is our town. it is our city. And now with Your help and through the guidance of dedicated servants we have a city government. Today we celebrate the opening of the City Hall which houses its functions!

On this day of dedication we pray for this place where bright sunrises and gentle sunsets frame the lives of talented persons from far and near. As new houses go up and new people arrive,we know that this building will take on added importance and increased significance. Now may this be a place of progress where new ways are considered along the side of tried and proven principles:

Let this be a place where people are more important than programs; Let this be a place where children’s needs will be considered more important than golden facets and fancy trinkets; Let this be a place of justice where all men are treated with respect and given a fair hearing; Let this be a place where the younger will how to be sensitive to the older; Let this be a place where the retired will learn how to live immortally by serving the needs of the younger; Let this be a place where youth’s needs are more significant than burial obelisks.

Let this be a building where reconciliation and forgiveness and cooperation are key words between mayor, between council, between manager, between personnel, between police, between builders and developers, between common people, between ecologists.

O Father, we pray that this will not be any ordinary town, but that it will be our town. We ask that this will not be any simple city but let it be a sample city.

And we can only hope that all of our ways, all of our doings, all of our accomplishments will be centered around and by and from a master plan in the power and the love of the God of the universe through whom we pray.

Amen.