Woodland Town Hall / Woodland Town Hall

The area now known as Woodland Township was first settled in 1837 by Charles Galloway and Jonathan and Samuel Haight. In 1842 the state legislature set aside the township, which by then had several hundred residents. The area’s level surface and fertile soil attracted farmers who specialized in fruit, wheat, and vegetables. By 1867 Woodland’s population had grown to about one thousand. On April 5 of that year, the township board voted to build a “town house.” The building committee—consisting of George Cramer, George Davenport, Alson P. Holly, John Holbrook, and Ira Stowell—drafted a plan, and construction began. The township board accepted the completed town hall and discharged the building committee three years later. In 1867 after agreeing to build a hall, the Woodland Township board purchased this property from Lawrence Hilbert. Building committee member George Davenport erected the frame for the Greek Revival structure and later built the front doors. S. S. Ingerson enclosed the building, and Ira Stowell, another member of the building committee, was responsible for the completion of the hall. The handsome structure, with its hand-hewn timbers, cost nearly two thousand dollars. The two-story, thirty-by-forty-eight-foot hall has been used by the township, fraternal organizations, traveling shows, community programs, and a school. By 1984 the town hall was the only virtually unaltered early building in the community. Heated by a free standing wood stove, it was still used for the annual township meeting.