Grand Rapids Audio Walking Tour

Highlights

• Gerald R. Ford Presidential Museum

  Gerald Ford attended the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor but chose Grand Rapids, the city that raised him, for his museum and his grave, which makes the Gerald R. Ford Presidential Museum in front of you the only presidential library in the country built in a different state from the president's college. Gerald Ford is one of the most consequential and most underestimated figures in American political history.

• 
  Van Andel Arena

  Van Andel Arena, the twelve-thousand-seat sports and entertainment venue in front of you, opened in 1996 and is widely credited with anchoring the revival of downtown Grand Rapids. The arena was named for Jay Van Andel, the co-founder of Amway, whose family donated substantially toward its construction.

• 
  Fountain Street Church

  Fountain Street Church has occupied a distinctive and sometimes controversial place in Grand Rapids for more than a century. The church was founded in 1869 as a Baptist congregation but evolved, through a series of remarkable ministers, into one of the most theologically liberal Protestant churches in the Midwest — a place that embraced evolution before most churches would discuss it, welcomed agnostics and questioners, and took positions on civil rights and Vietnam that put it at odds with the more conservative evangelical culture surrounding it in west Michigan.

• 
  Meyer May House

  Frank Lloyd Wright designed the house in front of you, the Meyer May House, one of his finest Prairie houses and one of the most completely restored buildings in his body of work. Wright designed the Meyer May House in 1909 for a Grand Rapids clothing merchant of that name, creating a low-slung horizontal composition of Roman brick, wide overhanging eaves, and art glass windows that practically defines the Prairie Style he was perfecting during those years.

• 
  Amway Grand Plaza Hotel

  Back in 1913 the older wing of the Amway Grand Plaza Hotel was built as the Pantlind Hotel, the grandest hostelry in western Michigan and a symbol of Grand Rapids at the height of its furniture-industry prosperity. The Pantlind's lobby, restored to its original splendor, features gilded ceilings, marble floors, and the sort of Edwardian opulence that was meant to reassure out-of-town furniture buyers that Grand Rapids was a serious, prosperous city worth doing business in.

All 40 stops

• Monroe Center (Downtown)

  Notice the pedestrian-friendly corridor that has been downtown Grand Rapids' main commercial street since the nineteenth century.

• Rosa Parks Circle (Downtown)

  Rosa Parks Circle is the living room of downtown Grand Rapids.

• Calder Plaza / La Grande Vitesse (Downtown)

  Since 1969 this plaza has been anchored by La Grande Vitesse, The Grand Swiftness, Alexander Calder's forty-two-ton abstract stabile rising above you.

• Grand Rapids City Hall (Downtown)

  Grand Rapids City Hall is one of the finest examples of Richardsonian Romanesque civic architecture in the Midwest.

• Grand Rapids Art Museum (GRAM) (Downtown)

  Glass and aluminum announce the Grand Rapids Art Museum, one of the first LEED-certified art museums in the world.

• McKay Tower (Downtown)

  For most of the twentieth century McKay Tower, the Art Deco skyscraper above you, defined the Grand Rapids skyline.

• Grand Rapids Public Library (Downtown)

  A Carnegie grant helped build the original structure here in 1904, and the main branch of the Grand Rapids Public Library has occupied this block…

• Amway Grand Plaza Hotel (Downtown)

  Back in 1913 the older wing of the Amway Grand Plaza Hotel was built as the Pantlind Hotel, the grandest hostelry in western Michigan and…

• DeVos Place Convention Center (Downtown / Riverfront)

  On the west bank of the Grand River, DeVos Place is the convention center that anchors Grand Rapids' bid to be a meeting destination.

• Van Andel Arena (Downtown)

  Van Andel Arena, the twelve-thousand-seat sports and entertainment venue in front of you, opened in 1996 and is widely credited with anchoring the revival of…

• Studio Park (Downtown)

  Just south of Van Andel Arena, Studio Park opened in 2019 as a mixed-use entertainment and residential complex on a formerly underused block.

• The BOB (Big Old Building) (Downtown)

  Butter, meat, and produce once filled The BOB, the Big Old Building, now one of the most successful examples of adaptive reuse in Grand Rapids…

• Blue Bridge (Downtown / Grand River)

  Underfoot is the Blue Bridge, the pedestrian and bicycle crossing over the Grand River that has become one of the most photographed spots in Grand…

• Ah-Nab-Awen Park (Grand River / Downtown)

  Resting place is what the Anishinaabe phrase means, and Ah-Nab-Awen Park carries that name on the ground where you now walk.

• Fish Ladder Park (Grand River / West Side)

  Fish Ladder Park is one of the most unusual public art installations in the Midwest, a working fish ladder that is also a sculpture.

• Gerald R. Ford Presidential Museum (Grand River / West Side)

  Gerald Ford attended the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor but chose Grand Rapids, the city that raised him, for his museum and his grave…

• Grand Rapids Public Museum (Grand River / Downtown)

  Michigan's oldest museum, the Grand Rapids Public Museum, traces its roots to 1854.

• GVSU Pew Campus (Downtown)

  Thousands of students stream daily into the downtown Pew Campus of Grand Valley State University, the institution that has done as much as any single…

• Grand Rapids Civic Theatre (Downtown)

  Continuously since 1925 the Grand Rapids Civic Theatre has operated here as one of the largest community theatre organizations in the United States.

• St. Cecilia Music Center (Downtown / East)

  Women built St. Cecilia Music Center, the concert hall and music institution in front of you.

• Ladies Literary Club (Downtown / East)

  Founded in 1852, the Ladies Literary Club is one of the oldest women's organizations in Michigan.

• Fountain Street Church (Downtown / East)

  Fountain Street Church has occupied a distinctive and sometimes controversial place in Grand Rapids for more than a century.

• Heritage Hill Historic District (East of Downtown)

  Heritage Hill, the largest urban historic district in Michigan, holds one of the finest concentrations of Victorian and Edwardian residential architecture in the Midwest.

• Voigt House Victorian Museum (Heritage Hill)

  Carl Voigt's family seems to have simply stepped out for the afternoon, so completely is the Voigt House, the Victorian mansion in front of you…

• Meyer May House (Heritage Hill)

  Frank Lloyd Wright designed the house in front of you, the Meyer May House, one of his finest Prairie houses and one of the most…

• Heartside Neighborhood (Downtown South)

  Heartside, the neighborhood just south of downtown Grand Rapids, has been for more than a century the city's primary zone of social services, transient housing…

• Madcap Coffee (Downtown)

  Coffee is taken seriously at Madcap Coffee, the specialty roaster and cafe that became one of the defining institutions of Grand Rapids' post-recession creative economy.

• Founders Brewing Company (Downtown / Near West Side)

  Few craft breweries in American history have been as influential as Founders Brewing Company.

• Vivant Beer Company (West Side)

  Modest worker houses and corner stores line the west side neighborhood of Grand Rapids you have entered, ground zero for the city's extraordinary craft brewing…

• Bridge Street Market Area (West Side)

  Bridge Street, the commercial spine of Grand Rapids' west side, runs beneath your feet through a neighborhood shaped by successive waves of immigrant settlement.

• St. Adalbert's Basilica (West Side)

  Twin towers 180 feet high mark St. Adalbert's Basilica, one of the most magnificent Polish Catholic churches in the United States and the spiritual heart…

• Pyramid Scheme (West Side / Near North)

  Independent and underground touring bands play the Pyramid Scheme, the music venue that anchors Grand Rapids' live music scene and says something important about the…

• Downtown Market GR (Southeast Downtown)

  Opened in 2013, the Downtown Market is the year-round indoor public market that quickly became one of the most successful food-destination projects in the Midwest.

• Wealthy Street Corridor (Southeast / Midtown)

  Wealthy Street, the commercial corridor connecting Grand Rapids' Southeast Side neighborhoods, has emerged as one of the most creatively vital streets in the city.

• Eastown Neighborhood (East of Downtown)

  Bohemian is the word for Eastown, the neighborhood east of downtown Grand Rapids where the independent bookshop, the vintage clothing store, the co-op grocery, and…

• Garfield Park Neighborhood (Southeast Grand Rapids)

  Families of factory workers and tradespeople who couldn't afford Heritage Hill but wanted something better than the industrial districts near the river settled the Garfield…

• Martin Luther King Jr. Park (Southeast Grand Rapids)

  Martin Luther King Jr. Park is the green space at the heart of the neighborhood where Grand Rapids' African American community put down its deepest…

• St. Andrew's Cathedral (Downtown)

  St. Andrew's Cathedral is the mother church of the Diocese of Grand Rapids and the oldest Catholic parish in the city.

• John Ball Zoo & John Ball Park (West Side)

  Ever since 1884 the hundred-acre green space of John Ball Zoo and John Ball Park on the west side of Grand Rapids has served as…

• Frederik Meijer Gardens & Sculpture Park (East Grand Rapids)

  Your walk has brought you to the entrance of Frederik Meijer Gardens and Sculpture Park, one of the most remarkable cultural institutions in the Midwest…

How it works