A history of Grand Rapids,
then and now
Postcards, papers and photographs of Grand Rapids from public archives, woven together by decade. Neighbors fill in the gaps.
The story
from WikipediaRead it all ↗Grand Rapids takes its name from a series of rapids on the Wisconsin River.
The west and north part of what is now Grand Rapids, within three miles of the Wisconsin River, was in the "Indian strip," ceded by the Menominee to the United States government in the 1836 Treaty of the Cedars. As such, it was logged and surveyed earlier than the surrounding land. In the spring of 1840, a crew working for the U.S. government surveyed the section corners, walking through the woods and crossing the river, measuring with chain and compass. When done, they produced this first description of the area:
Text from Wikipedia, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0.
Timeline
built from the dates on the items belowFinish Grand Rapids’s story
Most archives stop around 1920. The photos from after that are in family albums, not libraries.
1 of 10 decades since 1900 have photos 🔁Retake an old viewGrand Avenue East, 1909: stand where they stood+15 📦Share a family photoSign in to add one+10Famous people from Grand Rapids
See all 4 →
Grand Rapids, decade by decade
1990s
Nothing in Grand Rapids is on the National Register yet
That’s true of most small towns. It doesn’t mean Grand Rapids has no history, only that no one has written up a nomination. The closest listed place is Elizabeth Daly House in Wisconsin Rapids, 3.3 miles away.
Grand Rapids and the nearest listed places
How a place gets listed
Then & now
No then-and-now pairs yet. Take a photo from the same spot as Grand Avenue East (1909) and it appears here side by side.
🔁 Retake this view · +15Stories next door
nearby towns’ historyFrom the Library of Congress (5). Images are copied here with their credits and licenses, shown on each photo’s page. Refreshed monthly.