Street Names, mailing addresses, tax addresses.
City of Grand Rapids, Kent County, Michigan
Street Name Changes - 600 plus from 1857 - modern
The Big Change in 1912 includes 1894 alleys
Back to Civics Class. There are three levels of government: Local, State, Federal.
The United States Postal Service is a department or division or whatever of the FEDERAL GOVERNMENT. Your mailing address includes where the post office is located. So if your mailing address includes "Grand Rapids" that means that's where the post office is located not necessarily you.
The LOCAL government has the jurisdiction over the street name and number.. In the City of Grand Rapids, the City Engineer has the responsibility and authority to determine the street name and address contrary to the City Clerk, who conspired with the local branch of the post office without consulting other City Departments, and selected MAILING addresses which may or may not match the TAX address. I personally told her not to do it without matching the Tax address but she was so pleased with her narrow-focus. Why my idea meant more work for her. She got what she wanted. Everyone else got confusion. Oh, the phone calls we would get particularly from City employees who worked out in the field. (I have to admit I was amused in a perverted sort of way when voice-mail arrived. It would say, "please hold, your call will be answered in the order it was received." But no one, absolutely no one, would be assigned to actually answer the phone. Ever).
Today mailing addresses have zip codes: 49501, 49502, 49503, 49504, 49505, 49506, 49507, 49508, 49509 which replaced the old zones - Grand Rapids, 4, Mi has become Grand Rapids, Mi 49504. But more recently as suburbs have grown the old Rural Routes have been replaced by zip codes too. It used to be something like RR#4 and now is something like Grand Rapids, MI 49524.
And street names have been changing. Contrary to what the City librarians will tell you, the first one occurred in the City of Grand Rapids in 1857. (Centre was changed to Cedar).
And about 550 street name changes later, a bunch of names changed with the arrival of the Interstate: a limited-access highway run by the Federal Government and some portions by the State but NOT the local government. It drives me crazy that state-run roads have traffic light turn signals and lane markings different than the local government. You can be on the same street and one block you turn left first before on-coming traffic. Then the next block you turn left after on-coming traffic. And it is, at least in my part of the State, only the state-run highways that have the "Michigan left turn." (Turn right to turn left, go through two left turns and two more lights, just to end up back where you started but going in the opposite direction.) 28th street, now a major commercial strip that I avoid, used to go through multiple local jurisdictions and then through a State-run portion. It drove us crazy. Who do you call when there's an accident? Who do you call when the traffic light is out? Who plows it? Who do you call? This was before cell phones and 911. You had to KNOW what jurisdiction you were in and know who owned the road. The City of Grand Rapids or a portion of the state-owned street within the City of Grand Rapids? The City of Kentwood or a portion of the state-owned street within the City of Kentwood? The City of Wyoming or a portion of the state-owned street within the City of Wyoming? The City of Grandville or a portion of the state-owned street within the City of Grandville? Or heaven-forbid a county-owned portion of the street? And with the recent scandals of rescuers getting lost, , 911 operators are still having this problem.
Street names were traditionally selected by whoever platted the land. And many times, they named the streets after themselves. So the "same" street would change names when it went into a new plat. Confusion. And many times the streets as shown in a plat were never actually laid out or if they were laid out it was with a different name. These streets and names are called "paper streets" as they only existed on paper.
Street Name Changes - 600 plus See my on-line digital 1907 Ogle map for the actual street name change layout.
According to Baxter, an early local addressing system was first attempted in 1865 but quickly abandoned. Another system was adopted in 1873 with the river being the East/West dividing line. Streets running east/west were designated East with numbers increasing eastward on the east side of the river while designated West with the numbers increasing westward on the west side of the river.
Streets running north/south were designated west of the river by one street while on the east side of the river by a different street. House numbers increased north/south from West Bridge Street or East Fulton Street. Bridge Street was the Township line between Sections 24 and 25 of Walker Township, T7N, R12W. Fulton Street ran along the 1/4 section line for Section 30 of Grand Rapids Township, T7N, R11W. This system remained in effect until 1912.
The City of Grand Rapids adopted a new system in 1912. Kent County would eventually adopt this system as well, possibly in 1946. The dividing lines were Division Avenue, the Range line lying East of the river, for the East/West line and they kept Fulton Street, a 1/4 section line, as the North/South dividing line for both sides of the river. There has been confusion in the public mind ever since. It would have made some sense if they had 1. Kept the river as the dividing line or 2. Used Hall Street, a township line rather than Fulton a 1/4 section line.. So the addressing system adopted in 1912 did not match the old township system, did not match the 1873 system and did not match the actual terrain. This would be a particular problem for the same street, earlier called West Bridge west of the river and East Bridge east of the river.
Then East Bridge was renamed Michigan but not West Bridge. This confusion was caused by an act of the Common Council. On 17 May, 1909 as recorded on page 52, #40725 J L Davidson and others requesting that the name of Bridge street be changed to Michigan Avenue East and Michigan Avenue West. Referred to Committee on Ordinances. On 24 May 1909, the committee reported and advised that the motion be carried, " That Bridge Street, a public street, in the City of Grand Rapids, west from Grand River to the city limits and east from Grand River to the city limits, be and the same is hereby changed to Michigan Avenue West and Michigan Avenue East. On 30 Aug, 1909, Alderman McNabb moved that "west" portion be stricken. This motion carried 15 to 6. Unfortunately, the politics behind this street name is now unknown but I would assume, McNabb represented the west side ward while the original request was made by an alderman from the east side of the river. Then when the 1912 street addressing system was adopted making Division the dividing line, Michigan Avenue East became Michigan ST NE east of Division Avenue while that portion of Michigan Avenue East lying west of Division Avenue but east of the river became Michigan St NW.
As some of the name changes occurred before the plat was annexed by the City, the name change occurred either under the authority of the township or the county. There used to be a spiral-bound notebook at Kent County Mapping and Description Department that listed these pre-1946 name changes but with the retirement of the old-timers the younger I-know-everything employees don't know where it is.
One interesting street is Lake Drive which was shown as Thornapple Drive on the Holbrook Plat in 1857. This plat began just east of the Fitch Hunting Lodge built c. 1840. There is a State Historical Marker posted in front of this house. It was changed to Lake Avenue from Eastern to the City Limits (Fuller Avenue) in 1873. Then again to Lake Drive in 1912.
Today Robinson Road leads off from Lake Drive. Years ago, Robinson Road was the continuation of Thornapple Drive. This name change happened before it was annexed to the City in 1891. As Fulton Street ended before Cascade Road due to the presence of a swamp, the important road was on the high ground above the swamp. This Thornapple Road led to the town of Ada, an older trading post than Grand Rapids. Exactly how Cascade Road and the continuation of Lake Drive came about, I do not know.
Barber, Dave. City of Grand Rapids, Inspection Services, personal interview.
Barfuss, Chris, City of Grand Rapids, Right-of-Way Agent, City Engineers, personal interview
Baxter's History of Grand Rapids, 1891.
Cunningham, Bill. City of Grand Rapids, City Archives, personal interview..
LaPointe, Eric. City of Grand Rapids, City Engineers, personal interview.
Umphrey, Vaughn. City of Grand Rapids, Design Services Supervisor, City Engineers, personal interview.
From Heading Geography and the City of Grand Rapids
From web site: MyCityofGrandRapids.info