The city's early fire brigades were volunteer organizations, the church bell at St. Andrews Cathedral was one of two fire alarms, and horses had to be harnessed before the engine could leave the fire house.

Michigan and Grand Rapids played an unfortunate role in the worst example of mass extermination by humans in the history of wildlife, the Passenger Pigeon.

The shipyard forge, located where the Amway Grand Plaza stands today, was the site of the boatyard where boats were built that ran on the Grand River.

Unlike today, professional baseball, including the Detroit Tigers, was severely affected during Word War II by travel restrictions and the loss of players who had either enlisted or been drafted.

As the Opera House aged and burlesque became the standard fare the theater became known as "wicked old Smith's Opera House. Some considered its reputation redeemed when Mel Trotter turned it into a rescue mission.

The Ladies Literary Club, founded in 1873, was at the leading edge of the women's club movement established for the intellectual and cultural advancement of women.

The first home of the Grand Rapids Art Museum and the failed venture of Port Sheldon have an interesting historical connection.

The first milliner, a career practiced solely by women, opened her hat shop at the corner of Monroe and Ottawa in 1838. By 1900 over one hundred women listed milliner as their occupation in the city directory.