Cromaine District Library

History: 

The Cromaine District Library has served the residents of the Hartland Consolidated School district and surrounding townships since it was built in 1927. It was donated to the schools by J. Robert Crouse and his uncle, Henry A. Tremaine, as the result of a $5,000.00 bequest from John B. Crouse, father of J. Robert Crouse. Tremaine and Crouse added $ 20,000.00 to the bequest to erect the Library which was named in honor of its donors.

The Hartland schools provided the land on which the library was built under the tenure of W. D. White, Superintendent of Schools. Crouse provided a nucleus of 1,225 books for the collection. The schools in turn agreed to maintain the building, to provide heat, light, janitor services and a half-time teacher-librarian.

The building, a splendid example of early American Federalist architecture was designed by Professor Emil Lorch, Dean of the College of Architecture at the University of Michigan.

Almost 70 years later, in November 1995, Cromaine became an independent district library, established under the District Library Establishment Act (MCL 397.171 et seq.) by Hartland Consolidated Schools and Hartland Township. It is funded by a voted millage of 1.6 mills.

Cromaine Library has been and still is a valuable and vital resource to the Hartland community. The aim of the library is to provide services and a wide variety of media and materials to meet the informational, recreational and educational needs of all ages, individuals and groups.