This large window in the reading room of the Hackley Public Library echoes the semicircular arches of the entrance and upper window arcade of the building in which it is located. The window is divided into three levels with four panels at each level. The top and bottom panels are filled with intricate floral motifs. The panels of the middle level hold portraits of four writers who were popular in the late 1800s (left to right): England's William Shakespeare (1564-1616), Germany's Johann Wolfgang von Goethe (1749-1832), America's Henry Wadsworth Longfellow (1807-1882) and American historian William Hickling Prescott (1796-1859). Smaller decorative windows flank the larger window.
Built in 1888-1889 and dedicated in 1890, the pink granite Hackley Public Library was designed in the Richardsonian Romanesque style by Normand S. Patton, of the Chicago architectural firm of Patton and Fisher. It was one of several gifts to the city of Muskegon from lumber baron Charles H. Hackley, whose grand Queen Anne home still stands. The library's stained glass windows are attributed to the decorating and glass design studio of Healy & Millet, which operated in Chicago from 1880 to 1899.
The Hackley Public Library was registered in the Michigan Stained Glass Census by Robert A. Youngman of Muskegon (MSGC 94.0149). Photos by Jon G. Colburn, Vice-President, Hackley Public Library Board.
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