By Marissa Bergen
When it comes to West Michigan cities, it’s easy to find out about what sites to see, what the weather is like, its history and more. But there are always a number of fun facts, which, while not the most useful information in the world, make for great coffee table talk and may gain you points in popularity in your current social circle. Being the biggest of the West Michigan cities, Grand Rapids seems like a good starting point.
So, without further ado:
- Grand Rapids hosted the first-ever city-wide lip dub video. Grand Rapids Lip Dub would go on to gain over 5 million viewers on Youtube and win a PRNewswire Earnie Award.
- Janet Jackson eloped to Grand Rapids with her first husband, James DeBarge.
- Campau Square was once known by the much less respectable name of ‘Grab Corners’ due to its poker rooms and basement bars. This was a term coined by Lt. Bob Wilson, a returning veteran of the Civil War.
- Chris Van Allsburg, the author of Polar Express, grew up in East Grand Rapids. For that reason, it should come as no surprise that Herpolsheimer’s, the city’s old department store, is featured twice in the book’s film.
- Grand Rapids is home to a professional women’s basketball team, the Grand Rapids Chicks. Though they originated in Milwaukee, the team moved to Grand Rapids in 1945. The Chicks won two championships and many of its members were featured in the movie, ‘A League of Their Own’.
Photo by Ben Zelenka on Unsplash
- Grand Rapids was named the top U.S. travel destination by top travel publisher Lonely Planet in 2014.
- Melville R. Bissell invented the carpet sweeper to clean his Grand Rapids crockery shop in 1876. The cleaning device became so famous that Queen Victoria demanded to have her palace be ‘Bisselled’ weekly.
- From 1926 to 1935, Grand Rapids boasted the premier Street Car System in the U.S. It became well known due to the personalization of its electric coach streetcars which were part of a one-of-a-kind advertising campaign.
- Grand Rapids leads the U.S. in its efforts at being green, with more LEED-certified buildings per capita than any other U.S. city. They now boast the world’s first, newly built LEED-certified art museum.
- America’s largest 25K road race, the Fifth Third Riverbank Run, takes place in Grand Rapids. Participants come to the city from all around the globe to race.
- Grand Rapids was the first city to add fluoride to its drinking water…way back in 1945.
- Grand Rapids held the first-ever festival of laugher, Gilda’s Laugh Fest. Since the event’s inception in 1945, the city has been inspiring other cities to hold similar festivals.
These fun facts definitely reveal a lot about Grand Rapids. Even if these don’t represent groundbreaking historical events, they make it clear that this is a city that likes to have a good time!
Visit Grand Rapids to see if you can come up with your own fun facts about the area!
