Grand Rapids, Michigan was the center for shopping in western Michigan with department stores, five-and-dimes and more, until the advent of the shopping mall. F

Grand Rapids began as an Indian trading post. Louis Campau became the first permanent white settler in 1826. Today, the city on the Grand River is Michigan's se

For millennia, people have gathered at the rapids of the Grand River, the place where downtown Grand Rapids now stands. From its earliest recorded history in th

Grand Rapids, Michigan was the center for shopping in western Michigan with department stores, five-and-dimes and more, until the advent of the shopping mall. F

Like many other cities in the United States, Grand Rapids, Michigan has struggled with redeveloping its economic identity after the devastation of the Great Rec