The Belleville Library began in 1920 when the Wayne County Board of Supervisors appropriated $10,000 to better library facilities throughout Wayne County. Miss Kingsley of the Detroit Public Library, Mr. E. W. Yost, Wayne County Superintendent of Schools, and his assistant, Fred C. Fischer, selected the J. C. Pullen Furniture Store as the first library station in Belleville. This library of 200 books was the second reading center established by the Wayne County Library.

Over the next 30 years, the library outgrew three different locations with its growing collection of books. The Fred C. Fischer branch came into being shortly before the death of William Van Dyke in 1952. Mr. Van Dyke gave the library to the City of Belleville to commemorate a deep friendship for Fred C. Fischer, eminently respected citizen and leader of this community, with whom he had served on the Wayne County Library Board. The building was dedicated on November 8, 1953.