About Us:
The Ionia Community Library is housed in the Hall-Fowler House, a beautiful mid-nineteenth century building in downtown Ionia.
Frederick Hall, a Vermont-born businessman and banker, settled in Ionia in 1841 when he was twenty-five years old. Primarily engaged in buying and selling pine lands, he was also a public official. In 1845, President James K. Polk appointed Hall a receiver of public money for the land office in Ionia. Four years later, he won election to the state legislature, and in 1873, when Ionia was incorporated as a city, he became its first mayor.
Befitting his family’s affluence, Hall hired Captain Lucius Mills to build a square two-story mansion in 1869-1870. Fredrick, his wife Ann, and their daughter Marion moved into the home and it soon became a center of politics and entertaining.
The Hall-Fowler home is one of the best examples of Italianate architecture in Western Michigan. Constructed of local variegated ashlar sandstone, the building’s façade displays a great double-panel oak door emphasized by an elaborate front porch, a double arched window, a trefoil-like attic window, a central gable, and an ornate octagonal central cupola. Intricately carved wooden brackets, both paired and single, support the main eaves, while single brackets grace the cupola, porch, and sunroom eaves. Tudor-style semicircular hoods with keystones and end stones set off the elongated windows.
In 1903, Marion Hall-Fowler (1849-1931) deeded the house to the city of Ionia, stipulating that it be “forever used for library purposes” and “known as the Hall-Fowler Memorial Library.” The Hall-Fowler House was granted recognition as a Michigan Historic Site in 1992.
Reorganized as the Ionia Community Library in 2003, the Hall-Fowler House continues to provide a venue for education, enlightenment, and personal growth for residents of Ionia County. Library tours are available for groups and individuals by appointment.
