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EVELYN HALL Bay View, Michigan

In 1889, John M. Hall asked the Bay View board to find a location for the summer headquarters of the Woman’s Christian Temperance Union (WTCU). The resulting...
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In 1889, John M. Hall asked the Bay View board to find a location for the summer headquarters of the Woman’s Christian Temperance Union (WTCU). The resulting building, Evelyn Hall (aka Queen of Bay View), is a three-and-a-half story asymmetrical building designed by F. X. Oliver of Flint at a cost of $4,300 and is considered one of the finest examples of Steamboat Victorian Architecture in the United States. The asymmetrical multistory design resembles the decks of a Mississippi riverboat.
Mr. R. G. Peters, a millionaire lumber baron from Manistee, Michigan built Evelyn Hall in honor of his wife, Evelyn, a devout member of the WCTU. The WCTU held meetings at Evelyn hall for many years along with other women’s organizations. The hall was the site of the founding of the Michigan Federation of Women’s Clubs. Many famous women leaders spoke here including Frances Willard, Dr. Anna Howard Shaw, Mary Livermore and Jane Adams.
Evelyn Hall was also used as a tea room, art school, dance studio, chapel, Sunday school, lecture hall, costume studio, set design workshop, a cooking school, where Irma Rombauer, author of “Joy of Cooking” studied, and a girl’s dormitory for Albion College. Major renovations of Evelyn Hall began late in 1995 and were finished in 1998. The costume design studio is on the second floor. The Victorian parlor and large first floor reception rooms are the cultural and gathering center for the members of the Bay View community.

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