76. Saugatuck Village Hall

Location: 102 Butler Street, Saugatuck
Date: Built 1880, remodeled 1926

Left: The Butler street side of the hall prior to its Colonial Revival facelift. Right: the hall as it looks today, minus the clock.

The Saugatuck Village Hall began in 1880 as the village firehouse with meeting rooms on the second floor. Architect Carl Hoerman’s 1926 reconstruction of the building was part of a village-wide clean up and fix up campaign that resulted in a new Colonial Revival architectural face for the village. This structure, with its side pilasters, elegant recessed portico and arched windows announced the new “quaint village” message of the 1920s and 1930s. The upper floor was the village’s first art exhibition gallery and today it is the village council room. Alterations to the structure were proposed by the Village Council in 1988 but were rejected in the face of strong community opposition.