News

This week was the anniversary of a devastating event that severely impacted the Library of Michigan. At 12:40PM on February 8, 1951, a fire was discovered on the top floors of the State Office Building (now known as the Elliott-Larsen Building) on the corner of Walnut Street and Kalamazoo Street in Lansing. Several government departments/agencies occupied its halls including the Library of Michigan, the State Banking Commission and the Michigan Highway Department. By the evening of February 8th, additional fire crews from Battle Creek, Flint and Jackson were called to assist, followed by additional support from Grand Rapids. Local construction companies also provided 100-foot booms to help stretch hoses to the top of the building.

It would take several days until the fire was contained and still more until the recovery process could begin. State Librarian Loleta D. Fyan and her staff would bring thousands and thousands of items from the State Library's collection to the fieldhouse at the Boys Vocational School in order to dry out the waterlogged materials. It's estimated that the Library of Michigan lost over 30,000 items as a result of this event. It was later determined that a 19-year-old Highway Department employee started the fire in a wastebasket with the intention of starting a small fire, extinguishing it and admitting fault in order to avoid being drafted into military service in Korea.

Discover more about the 1951 State Office Building Fire by either reading the February 10, 2021 Lansing City Pulse article Memories of Lansing’s Most Devastating Structural Fire or in the publication Lansing's Biggest Fire: (State Office Building) by Carlisle Carver. Photos of the aftermath of the fire are also viewable on the Library of Michigan's LM Digital platform.