BELLEVUE VILLAGE HALL
The
beautiful two-story cut fieldstone building that houses the government
offices for the Village of Bellevue was built in 1908 as a bank by Mr.
Charles Secore. It is a rock-faced fieldstone building, the stones which
were acquired from a farm just north of the village limits. As explained
in an article taken from the Bellevue Gazette, January 14, 1909, “The
structure is a credit to the skill and superior workmanship of Charles
G. Secore who doesn’t step aside for the best one when it comes to fancy
stone work. All of the interior woodwork is of selected quarter-sawed
oak, and the artistic tile floor is due to the handiwork of Guy E.
Fitzgerald, another old Bellevue boy who has become highly skilled.” The
building was used as a bank until 1933, when it closed in the grip of
the depression. It was then vacant until 1934, when the village
purchased it for $3,500 and took it over for conducting village
business. The structure is now listed on the State Register of Historic
Buildings. H. F. Higgins was the master mechanic with E.G. Madison doing
the interior woodwork while the furniture, safe and vault alarm were
furnished by N.J. Johnson, Diebold Safes, and Detroit Safe Co.