Upper Monroe
Monroe Avenue was originally platted by Louis Campau in 1836 in his Village of Grand Rapids to run diagonally along the base of Prospect Hill from from Pearl Street to Fulton Street.
Plat for the Village of Grand Rapids, Pearl St to Fulton St, the Grand River to
Division Ave.
H shows the location of Herp's, S shows the location of Steketees, W shows the location of Wurzburg's
Lucius Lyons platted Canal Street alongside a canal that bypassed the rapids in his Village of Kent
Canal Street ran northward from Lyon Street. Monroe ran southward from Pearl Street. Monroe Ave and Canal Street did not connect. Eventually the two streets were connected and Canal became known as Lower Monroe .
This curious situation is shown in this photo of Grab Corners. Monroe ends at Pearl. Go westward on Pearl a few feet and you can see the beginning of Canal St.
Grab Corners
Eventually these buildings would be torn down, Canal would become Lower Monroe and the little triangle of land left over would become Campau Square.
The north end of Upper Monroe - - looking down Monroe towards Pearl St.
The south end:
Looking
down Monroe from Fulton Street
The cross streets would be Market, Ottawa, Ionia and Commerce which was later vacated.
Upper Monroe would end in a triangle with Division Avenue and Fulton Street, the dividing line for the house numbering quadrant system adopted in 1912.Addressing Rules. At this triangle would be a statue for Civil War Soldiers called Monument Square.
Herp's at 1 Division Av N, Steketees at 86 Monroe Ave NW, Wurz at 101 Monroe Ave NW
Heading away from Monroe Ave to the Southwest would be Union Station and Southeast would be Shopping for the rich
I have tried to impact every source with corrections or comments so everything on this site is copywrited. The information may be used for your project but the source must be cited.
From article Down Retail
From Heading History and the City of GrandRapids
From web site: MyCityofGrandRapids.info