City Hall Historic District (Battle Creek, Michigan)


The City Hall Historic District is a commercial and municipal historic district located along East Michigan Avenue from Monroe to Jay Streets in Battle Creek, Michigan. It was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1996.

History

The central part of Battle Creek was first platted in 1836, and this section became the site of some of the earliest development in the settlement. The first stores and initial commercial section was just west of the present City Hall Historic District, but the first house in Battle Creek was likely located within the bounds of the district. The first school, built in 1834, was within the district, and booth the Methodist and Baptist congregations constructed churches within the district soon after. Commercial development also quickly spread along Michigan Avenue into the district, and by mid-century the first few blocks of Michigan were lined with one- and two-story wooden stores. By the 1870s, commercial development had spread through the entire district, and the wooden stores were replaced by more substantial brick buildings.
After the turn of the century, the most substantial buildings in the district, the ole Post Office and the City Hall, were constructed. The district has been continually used for both municipal and commercial purposed into the twenty-first century.

Description

The City Hall Historic District runs for two blocks along Michigan Avenue, and contains 19 buildings and structures, of which 12 contribute to the historic nature of the district. Two of these buildings are significant in their own right: the Old Battle Creek Post Office and the Battle Creek City Hall. It also contains a Masonic temple, two churches, a city park, and a number of late nineteenth- and early twentieth-century commercial buildings.
Contributing buildings and structures include: