Grand Rapids, a widely known furniture center and convention city, is located on the site where Louis Campau established a Native American trading post in 1826. The city derives its name from the rapids in the Grand River, which flows through the heart of the city. There are 50 parks here, totalling 1,270 acres. Calvin College and Calvin Seminary (1876) are located here; several other colleges are in the area.

Thirty-eighth president Gerald R. Ford was raised in Grand Rapids and represented the Fifth Congressional District in Michigan from 1948 to 1973, when he became the nation's vice president.