The county seat and its courthouse

Ithaca is Gratiot County’s seat — the place where county business gets done — and its centerpiece is one of the prettiest courthouses in mid-Michigan. The Gratiot County Courthouse, built of stone in 1900 in a grand Classical Revival style with a tall clock tower, was designed by Jackson architect Claire Allen, who designed several of Michigan’s county courthouses. It still stands in the heart of downtown, on the National Register of Historic Places, and still serves as the working courthouse.

The town wasn’t always called Ithaca. When the county government got going in the 1850s, the settlement was named “Gratiot Center,” and its first courthouse was a two-story log cabin. In 1857 the name was changed to Ithaca, after Ithaca, New York, and it stuck.

These days Ithaca is a small, tidy county-seat town surrounded by farmland, with parks and a downtown of historic buildings. Each year it throws the Ithaca Harvest Festival, celebrating the area’s farming roots with a parade, craft shows, and family fun.