The Mobile Library visit scheduled today at 4 pm has been canceled due to a maintenance issue. We apologize for the inconvenience. 

NOTICE: Public Meeting KPL Board of Trustees | March 22 | 5:15 pm & March 23 | 12:30 pm | Central/Van Deusen. Information can be found on our website.

Local History

Buildings

Bowers Building

Photo by Kanti Sandhu, from Kalamazoo: The Place Behind the Products, p. 219 Situated at 610 W. Willard Street, the Bowers Building is currently home to the Water Street Coffee…

Albert White: African American Builder

Albert White was an African American building contractor who lived and worked in Kalamazoo from the 1870s until his death in 1930. He and his men helped build a number of well known structures in Kalamazoo history.

American National Bank Building

Built between 1928-29, one of Kalamazoo’s boldest and most prominent downtown buildings is the American National Bank Building (1933-1987), also known as the Art Deco skyscraper that at various times…

Asbestos Row and the Dewing Building

The story of the Dewing Building (132 N. Kalamazoo Mall), a structure so long that it embodies an entire city block (from Michigan Avenue to Water Street), will forever be…

Bowers Building

Photo by Kanti Sandhu, from Kalamazoo: The Place Behind the Products, p. 219 Situated at 610 W. Willard Street, the Bowers Building is currently home to the Water Street Coffee…

Burdick Hotel

The origins of hospitality on the present site of the Radisson Plaza Hotel date to August 1850 when construction of an imposing four-story brick structure began. Built by Frank Dennison and initially known simply as Dennison’s brick block, the new...

Columbia Hotel

In 1870 the Grand Rapids and Indiana Railroad began service through Kalamazoo with a passenger station on the southeast corner of Pitcher Street and East Main, today’s East Michigan Avenue. The presence of this station and the countless out-of-town..

Corporation Hall

Kalamazoo’s government has had several homes over the years. The first structure built for the purpose was Corporation Hall, which was erected in 1867 and located on the west side of South Burdick Street...

Corporation Hall - City Hall

Kalamazoo Village officers first got a home of their own with the 1867 construction of Corporation Hall on the west side of S. Burdick Street between South Street and Michigan Avenue. Fire companies were located on the first floor, with additional...

Desenberg Building

Downtown Kalamazoo’s Michigan Avenue is home to the last known Louis Sullivan-designed building in the state of Michigan. Located at 251 E. Michigan Avenue, the Desenberg Building was built in 1886…

Grand Rapids and Indiana Line Station

The present “Whistlestop” restaurant began as a way station in a dream to run rail lines from Fort Wayne through Grand Rapids to Mackinac and then to connect across the Upper Peninsula with the Northern Pacific. “Western Michigan...

Hanselman Building

Prior to the turn of the century, no commercial buildings in the city exceeded four stories. That all changed in 1907 when the city’s first steel-framed skyscraper, the Kalamazoo National Bank Building, rose an astounding eight-stories over the...

Hurd Building

Charles Hurd was 25 as he opened up his farm in Oshtemo Township in 1835--when Kalamazoo was doing the nation's most profitable "land-office business". For twenty years he farmed and raised a family, then moved to Kalamazoo in 1855. He bought a...

Interurban Building

Located on the east side of Portage Street (169-171), just north of E. South Street, the Interurban Building stands today, a survivor of time, fire, weather and urban redevelopment. The…

Kalamazoo Building

At the turn of the twentieth century skyscrapers were still a relatively recent development. The desire to build taller had historically been thwarted by the number of stairs people were willing to climb and how much weight masonry could support...

Ladies Library Association

The Kalamazoo Ladies Library Association was the first woman’s club organized in Michigan and the third in the nation. Members held meetings in various places around the village between 1852 and 1879, when local builder Fred Bush completed...

Marlborough Building

The Marlborough Building at 471 W. South Street was added to the National Register of Historic Places on May 27, 1983. In addition to being listed on the National Register, the Marlborough Building enjoys local historic district status as a single...

Michigan Central Railroad Station

Kalamazoo celebrated one Sunday morning in 1846, when the Michigan Central ran its first train into town. A few years later, passengers and freight could move on as far as Chicago, and Kalamazoo's future as a rail center was assured. Eventually...

Oakland Pharmacy

Whether by design, by location, or perhaps by pure chance, certain commercial structures are destined to become lifelong places where people like to congregate, regardless of the type of business within. From its origins as Oakland Pharmacy, a...

Rockwell A. LeRoy: Kalamazoo Architect

During the first decades of the 20th century, few Kalamazoo architects were perhaps as successful or as well respected as was Rockwell A. LeRoy, who designed many of the area’s finest municipal, residential, and commercial structures.

Vine-Locust Corner Buildings

Today, O’Duffy’s Pub and Cosmo’s Cucina reside in the two-story brick building situated on the corner of W. Vine and Locust Street in the Vine Neighborhood (726-728 Locust). A parking…

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