Brighton's 1879 Old Town Hall, now the CoBACH Center

Once upon a time, the entire government of Brighton fit under one brick roof on West Main Street. The council, the jail, the fire engine, and the library were all crammed into a single small hall. That building is still standing. It has worn more hats in its life than most towns wear in a century.

The village council voted to build it in 1878. A local contractor named James Collett had it finished in 1879. Inside, the village squeezed its council chamber, a voting room, a jail, and a firehouse all together. A little weekend lending library opened in there too. That modest shelf grew up into Brighton’s public library. The building went on to house that library for all but nine years between 1927 and 1981. A state historical marker was planted out front in 1983. It lays the whole crowded story on the sidewalk for anyone who stops to read it.

Today the place is the City of Brighton Arts, Culture and History Center, shortened to CoBACH. The Brighton Area Historical Society maintains exhibit space there alongside the Brighton Art Guild and the Livingston Players.

It is an honest little monument to how a 19th-century Michigan village did everything at once: law, fire protection, votes, and books, with no room to spare. It also shows what can happen when a town keeps finding an old building new work instead of knocking it down. The hall still stands at 202 West Main Street beside the Mill Pond.