As a kid, I took trips to visit my family’s property in northern Michigan once or twice a year. My dad would drive us up US 131 from his place in Elkhart, and we’d pass through little towns like White Pigeon and Constantine until we hit Grand Rapids. Big Rapids lay just up the road, and my brother and I always howled with laughter when we got there. What could possibly come next- Moderate Rapids? Rippleburg? Grand Rapids was a tough act to follow! It wasn’t until years later, in 2018, that I finally set foot in Big Rapids to check out the Mecosta County Courthouse.
Named after a leader of the Potawatomi Tribe1, Mecosta County has a convoluted early history. Suffice it to say that Michigan legislators approved its boundaries in 1840, but it wasn’t until 1859 that the county was officially organized2. Officials decided that election inspectors from each of the county’s township should meet at the village of Leonard3, which was known by area lumbermen as Big Rapids. Leonard’s post office soon took the community’s common name, and Big Rapids became a city in 18694.
The Muskegon River drew lumberjacks to the area, but Mecosta County wasn’t home to a courthouse for many years. At least as of the early 1880s, officials holed up in rented buildings at the corner of Elm and Michigan in downtown Big Rapids5. The board of supervisors finally floated the idea of building a courthouse in 1883, and a tax issue was passed the following year6.
Commissioners hired architect N.J. Gibbs, who designed a striking two-story Romanesque Revival building with a hundred-foot-tall open belfry7 that was completed in 1886. Unfortunately, the majestic courthouse wasn’t to last. Its tower was decapitated in the 1940s following safety concerns, and a 1957 fire scorched the building’s basement walls8.
County officials outgrew the old courthouse by the 1960s. Just like in the 1880s, they were forced to rent room in offices spread across downtown! Unfortunately, the structure had become increasingly ramshackle. Besides that, Mecosta County’s growing population made it clear that a new courthouse was needed9. In response, officials commissioned Ypsilanti architect Stephen T. Gerganoff to design a modern, two-story building to replace it. The second courthouse to grace Big Rapids was dedicated on November 7, 1970- twenty years to the day before I was born!
Architecturally, I can’t find much to say about the Mecosta County Building. It sprawls across the heart of Big Rapids. Built of buff-colored brick and set on landscaped grounds, the L-shaped courthouse features a north and east wing. The main entrance, tucked into the recessed first floor under the building’s elbow, welcomes visitors with sleek glass paneling. A Civil War memorial dedicated in 1893 and a second war memorial from 1954 add some gravitas to the grounds.
The Mecosta County Building shares a familiar design with Gerganoff’s other courthouses in Cheboygan, Huron, and Ogemaw Counties, but I’ve yet to visit those. While it offered a huge functional upgrade over the old courthouse, the building, for all its size, lacks the grandeur one might expect. Then again, it sits in Big Rapids, not its Grand counterpart. Still, the Mecosta County Building is solid and practical. Unfortunately, it doesn’t quite capture the awe or elegance of a classic courthouse.
TL;DR
Mecosta County (pop. 41,416, 40/83)
Big Rapids (pop. 7,858)
14/83 photographed
Built: 1970
Cost: $1.2 million
Architect: Stephen T. Gerganoff
Style:Â Modern
Courthouse Square:Â Harrisonburg
Height:Â 2 stories
Current Use:Â County courts and offices
Photographed: 4/29/2018
Sources Cited
1 History of Mecosta County [n.d.]. Mecosta County Area Chamber of Commerce [Big Rapids]. Web. Retrieved October 1, 2024.
2 Bibliography on Mecosta County (n.d.). Clarke Historical Library. Central Michigan University [Mt. Pleasant]. Web. Retrieved October 1, 2024.
3 Wood, J. (1999). The Village That Time Forgot. In The Woods. MiGenWeb. Web. Retrieved October 1, 2024.
4 Cole, M. (1974). Michigan’s Courthouses Old And New. Maurice Cole [Oakland County]. Book.
5 About Us (n.d.) Mecosta County [Big Rapids]. Web. Retrieved October 1, 2024.
6 (See footnote 5).
7 Sanborn Fire Insurance Map from Big Rapids, Mecosta County, Michigan (1908). Sanborn Map Company. The Library of Congress. Web. Retrieved October 1, 2024.
8 Fedynsky, J. (2010). Michigan’s County Courthouses. The University of Michigan Press [Ann Arbor]. book.
9 (See footnote 8).
Yes, it kind of looks like a mid-1960s suburban high school.