Facts & Trivia

Downtown

• The 1913 Room at the Amway Grand Plaza Hotel is the only 5-Diamond restaurant in the Midwest outside of Chicago.
• Heritage Hill Historic District, adjacent to downtown, has 60 architectural styles and 1300 homes.
• There are 28 public golf courses with many only fifteen minutes from downtown making it one of the top cities in the U.S. in number of public golf courses-to-population ratio.
• There are over 60 restaurants and nightclubs in the downtown area, all are within walking distance.
• The Frederik Meijer Gardens & Sculpture Park has the Midwest's most comprehensive sculpture collection.
• The Gerald R. Ford International Airport is the second largest airport in Michigan and the 86th largest airport nationally, serving more than 2 million passengers annually.
• Each May, the 25K Fifth Third Riverbank Run attracts 10,000 participants from all over the globe.
• In April 2004, Grand Rapids was named as one of America's Most Livable Communities by the Partners for Livable Communities.
• Grand Rapids ranks fifth-healthiest town for men by Men's Health Magazine from among 101 cities surveyed (October 2002).
• Van Andel Arena has been consistently rated in the top tier of world-wide arenas in its class by Amusement Business Magazine.
• Grand Rapids was named #6 Fishing City by Field & Stream Magazine, July 2006.
• Zondervan Publishing House, located in Grand Rapids, was named one of the top 40 Christian places to work in America by Christianity Today Magazine, 2005.
• Grand Rapids is located three hours from Chicago and 35 minutes from the sandy beaches of Lake Michigan.

Miscellaneous

• Ottawa Indians were Grand Rapids' first inhabitants and in 1826 the city was settled by French fur traders.
• Its name comes from the Grand River, Michigan's largest inland river.
• Grand Rapids was originally known as the "Furniture Capital" of the nation. It is known today as the "Furniture Capital" of office furniture manufacturing.
• It is headquarters to many national and multi-national headquarters including Steelcase, Herman Miller, Haworth, Alticor (formerly Amway), Wolverine World Wide, and Meijer stores.
• It is Michigan's second largest city with a metropolitan population of 1,302,372.
• In 1945, Grand Rapids was the first city in the U.S. to add fluoride to its drinking water.
• Gerald R. Ford, a native son, became the 38th President of the United States on August 9, 1974.
• Kent County is Michigan's largest apple-producing county. It is also a major producer of peaches, celery, carrots, onions, corn, wheat and Christmas trees.
• Grand Rapids has two homes in the city designed by Frank Lloyd Wright. One is the Amberg House and the other the Meyer May House which is open to the public three days per week.
• Grand Rapids was named an All-American City three times.
• "La Grande Vitesse," by Alexander Calder, was placed on Vandenberg Plaza in 1969. The name means "Great Swiftness."
• In November 1998, Grand Rapids was named by Fortune magazine as one of the Top 10 Best Cities for Business in the U.S.
• It has $500 million in new attractions, meeting facilities and recreational venues.