The Mitchell Research Center in downtown Hillsdale contains a wealth of information inside a building that represents the lives and histories of many of Hillsdale’s citizens for the past 150 years.
Charles T. Mitchell was born in 1817 in Montgomery County, New York. He received a limited education, and at the age of 21, he left New York and traveled to Michigan. There, he worked on the construction of the Michigan Southern Railroad, which ran from Adrian to Hillsdale.
In 1843, he entered the business world, creating warehouse space in the city of Hillsdale where goods could be stored before being shipped on trains elsewhere. He eventually moved into other business ventures, including creating the first Hillsdale city bank. Through this entrepreneurship, he amassed a modest fortune. In 1847, he married Harriet Wing, and, together, they had six children.
During the Civil War years, Mitchell became involved in politics, attending the 1864 Republican convention that nominated Abraham Lincoln to a second term as president. After the war, he continued his involvement in politics, as well as being heavily-involved with Hillsdale College, remaining a trustee for nearly 25 years.
Constructed by Charles T. Mitchell in 1868, his house first functioned as a home for the Mitchell family for nearly 40 years. The ornate third-floor ballroom found its use in these early years not for elaborate dances or card parties, but as a playroom for the Mitchell children.
The need for a city library became apparent to the Mitchell family in the later years of the 19th century. Until the donation of the Mitchell home as a library space, the first library system in Hillsdale consisted of several separate collections of books stored at different locations around the town.
This system, developed by Harriet Mitchell’s sister, was highly ineffective and time-consuming. The difficulties that arose from this early system led the Mitchells to leave their three-story home to the city for use as a central library.
Upon the death of Charles Mitchell in 1898, he bequeathed the building to the city of Hillsdale in his will, stating that it be developed into a library after the death of his wife. Harriet, the widow of Charles Mitchell, died in 1906, and a series of renovations were carried out on the building following her death.
The renovations, costing a total of $10,000, were made through another clause in Mitchell’s will, gifting the money to the city for the sole purpose of developing the home into a library. Additional funds were given to the city by the two surviving children of Charles and Harriet Mitchell in order to aid in the renovation.
On July 15, 1908, the Mitchell Public Library opened its doors to the public. The afternoon event was attended by prominent local citizens, including J.W. Mauck, who was president of Hillsdale College at the time.
The building would serve as the community library for 95 years, undergoing one renovation in the 1950s. In 2003, the new Hillsdale Public Library opened next to the Mitchell building.
After the construction of the new building, the former library was designated the Mitchell Research Center, and is used to store historical and genealogical records of Hillsdale County and the surrounding area.
To many locals, the Mitchell Center represents a large portion of their childhoods. John Pulver, a Hillsdale native who donated the Center’s most recent non-fiction collection, spent many of his childhood days in the library.
“When someone says library, I picture this building. My mother would bring me here when I was a kid,” said Pulver.
Rosemary Easler, a pre-school teacher who taught for 41 years, and is now currently a volunteer at the Mitchell Center, remembers the library fondly.
“I used to bring my schoolkids up here. We’d talk about how old the building was, and their eyes would just…pshew!” she laughed. “We’d show them the portrait of Charles Mitchell above the fireplace, and they understood that it was someone’s home.”
Another Hillsdale native, Deborah Young, remembers the many events that occurred at the library over the years.
“We had many piano recitals here when I was a little girl,” she said.
Economic Development Coordinator Mary Wolfram, a volunteer at the Mitchell Center, listens to all these stories and hopes to bring back the sense of community that the library created.
“My children grew up going to this library. We would like to have things like piano recitals again. We want to use the building to promote historical tourism. It’s a gorgeous building,” Wolfram said.
The building now houses many historical records and books that detail not only the history of the city of Hillsdale, but of Michigan as a whole. The newly-opened Pulver collection contains books that span all aspects of Michigan history over the last 200 years.
The building, currently staffed by volunteers known as the Friends of Mitchell Research Center, is open Monday-Friday from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m.
The volunteers work to keep the collection organized and current, as well as developing new uses for the building itself, in order to keep this piece of Hillsdale history alive and well.
“It’s a landmark,” said Easler. “It just wouldn’t be Hillsdale without the Mitchell building.”