GRAND RAPIDS, a city of western Michigan, 3om. from Lake Michigan; a port of entry, the county seat of Kent county, the second city of the State in size, and "the furniture capital of America." It is on federal highways 16 and 131; has a county airport ; and is served by the Grand Trunk, the Michigan Central, the New York Central, the Pennsylvania, and the Pere Marquette railways, and by interurban motor-coach and truck lines. The population was 137,634 in 1920 (20.6% foreign-born white) and was 168,592 in 1930 by the Federal census. Nearly half of the foreign born 01,422 in 1920) are from Holland, the largest colony of Dutch in the country. The city has an area of 22.5 square miles. The valley here is about 2m. wide, with a range of hills on either side, about equally distant from the river, which falls 18f t. within a mile. A comprehensive city plan, adopted in 1922, is in process of development. A zoning ordinance became oper ative in 1923. Progress has already been made (1928) in eliminat ing grade crossings by viaducts and depressed roadways (to be completed by 1937), widening major streets, removing "dead ends" and "jog corners" which seriously obstruct the flow of traffic, re-routing the transit lines, and revising the layout of the north-eastern hill section so as to facilitate its utilization as a residential district ; and plans are under way for broad esplanades along both banks of the river and a system of large parks and pleasure drives encircling the city. The public parks and play grounds cover 9o2 acres (1928), and are so distributed that there is one within 15 minutes' walk of every home in the city, and a supervised playground within half a mile of every child. The public school system includes a junior college, and special classes for the deaf, for cripples, for the backward, and for other children who need exceptional consideration. Grand Rapids is second only to Des Moines (among the large cities of the country) in the percentage of home ownership. It has a high proportion of children in school; a small amount of child labour; a low percent age of illiteracy; a low general death rate, and a low infant mortality. Since 1916 it has had a commission-manager form of government. The assessed valuation of property in 1927 was On the outskirts of the city, overlooking the river, is the Michigan Soldiers' Home.
The furniture industry, dating from 1847, is still the centre of the city's economic life, though the manufacture of aeroplanes and other essentials during the World War has resulted in a greater diversification of industries than prevailed formerly. The aggre gate factory output in 1927 was valued at $135,254,053, of which furniture accounted for $55,810,048, and this was about 7% of the value of all the furniture made in the United States. Acces sory industries (such as brass foundries, veneer plants, varnish works and mirror factories) are an important group; and Grand Rapids has the largest factories in the country making carpet sweepers, school seats, church pews, opera chairs, showcases, refrigerators, gypsum products, folding paper boxes and fly paper. A furniture market (attended in recent years by 2,500 3,000 buyers) has been held semi-annually in Grand Rapids since 1878. Grand Rapids is in the heart of the Michigan fruit belt, and truck-farming is carried on extensively even within the city limits. The Dutch are engaged largely in market-gardening and in raising tulip and gladiolus bulbs. The city has a large whole sale and jobbing trade, amounting to $75,000,000 annually. Bank clearings in 1926 totalled There was a large Ottawa Indian village on the site of Grand Rapids, and here a Baptist mission was established in 1824, and a trading post was established in the year 1826 (by Louis Campau). The first sawmill was built in 1833, and in 1838 the village was incorporated. In 1850, when the population was 2,686, it was chartered as a city. By 1860 it had grown to 8,085, and in the next 3o years the population practically doubled in each decade. Between 1890 and 1920 the increases per decade were successively 45%, 29% and 22%. Annexations of territory grad ually widened the corporate area until it is now 22.5 square miles. The prosperity of the early days was based on lumbering. When the great stands of soft woods were nearing depletion, attention turned to utilizing the maple, oak, birch, walnut and other hard woods that were left, and the steady industrial growth since the introduction of furniture-making in 1859 has been a natural development.