Founding year: Wikidata. First post office: 1884.The full story ↓
History grade
What drives Grant Township’s History grade
On its age, its old homes and the National Register, Grant Township is more historic than 30% of U.S. towns, #572 of 701 in Michigan. Its share of homes from before 1940 holds the grade up; its National Register listings pull it down.
C
HistoryA character grade: shown, never part of Grant Township’s overall grade.
Few Michigan towns list much on the Register (a typical Michigan town has 0.0 per 10,000 residents, the U.S. 2.4), so Grant Township’s 0.0 sits below most of its state (32% of Michigan towns have fewer) while its 0 listings outnumber those of 23% of U.S. towns.
NoteThe founding year comes from Wikidata alone; no second source gives 1893.
How sure. Graded on any two of the three inputs instead, the letter would still be C. The pre-1940 share is a Census survey estimate (±5.2 points).
Founding year: Wikidata (other dates in Quick answers). Homes: Census ACS 2020–24. National Register: National Park Service, May 2026 list; each listing counted once (boundary changes and added documentation belong to their listing), and a historic district counts its contributing buildings. How TownRatings grades history →
What stands out about Grant Township’s past
Read from the archive, the National Register and the record. The page puts what stands out first.
The history of Grant began in 1882, when Andrew J. Squier built the first sawmill. Soon afterward, a railroad station was built on the Chicago and Western Michigan Railroad. Squier named the station Grant Station after President and Civil War general Ulysses S. Grant. The community was also called Grant Center because of its location within the township.
On May 14, 1892, a post office was established under the name Grant Station. Grant Center was incorporated in 1893 as the village of Grant. The post office name was shortened to Grant in 1899.
At the peak of the lumber era, the sawmills shipped one million feet of lumber per year. The village of Grant was reincorporated as a city in 1969.
The U.S. Geological Survey’s map of Grant Township.
1985Cedar Springs sheet · 1:100,000
U.S. Geological Survey historical topographic maps (public domain), via Esri’s collection of the scans. The red ring marks the center of Grant Township.
People over time
Grant Township, census by census
Grew from 90 people in 1880 to 952 in 2020, more than tenfold.
14 censuses, 1880–2020.
U.S. Census Bureau decennial counts, from the census table on Grant Township’s Wikipedia page.
Places that used to be
Lost post offices, old corners, places now gone and burying grounds
Another post office, Sun, opened and closed inside today’s town.
Hamlets and corners on the map
Sun
Gone or out of use
Bolthouse Landing StripairportGrant AirportairportSun Post Officepost office
1cemetery inside Grant Township
Hillside
US Post Offices dataset (Blevins & Helbock, CC0). Places and cemeteries from the USGS Geographic Names Information System (2021).
Stories next door
History across the town line
Each neighbor’s History grade, on the same three inputs.
In 1893, according to Wikidata. Grant Township’s post office opened in 1884, and the census of 1880 counted 90 people here.
How does Grant Township rank for history?
Grant Township is more historic than 30% of U.S. towns, #572 of 701 in Michigan. The History grade combines the town’s founding era, the share of homes built before 1940 and its National Register listings. It’s a character grade, so it isn’t part of the overall grade. How it works.
How old are the homes in Grant Township?
10% of Grant Township’s homes were built before 1940 (Census estimate, ±5.2 points), against a typical 12% for a Michigan town; the median home was built in 1986.
Founding dates: Wikidata, Wikipedia, the U.S. post office records of Blevins & Helbock (CC0) and the Census. Homes by year built: Census ACS 2020–24. National Register of Historic Places: National Park Service (list of May 22, 2026). Old photos, postcards and papers: Wikimedia Commons, the Library of Congress and other public archives, credited on each item’s page. Maps: U.S. Geological Survey historical topographic maps (via Esri) and Sanborn fire-insurance maps (Library of Congress). History text and census tables: Wikipedia (CC BY-SA 4.0). Places that used to be: USGS Geographic Names Information System (2021).
From Wikipedia, U.S. Geological Survey historical maps, U.S. Census counts (via Wikipedia), the US Post Offices dataset (Blevins & Helbock) and the USGS Geographic Names Information System. Archive images are copied here with their credits and licenses, shown on each photo’s page. Refreshed monthly.
