Before the suburbs: when Reeds Lake was the place to be

Today, East Grand Rapids is a quiet, leafy suburb wrapped around pretty Reeds Lake, with a walkable shopping street called Gaslight Village (named for its old-fashioned gas lamps). But a hundred years ago, this was the region’s biggest fun spot. From the late 1800s until 1955, the lakeshore was home to Ramona Park, an amusement park built by the local streetcar company to get people riding its trolleys out to the lake. It had a wooden roller coaster, a Ferris wheel, a carousel, a fun house, a theater, and steamboats that chugged around Reeds Lake. Big names showed up: Babe Ruth and the New York Yankees played baseball at the park’s ballfield, comedian Groucho Marx performed on its stage, and a teenage Gerald Ford — the future president — worked at a concession stand. In the 1950s, the town decided to close the park and build the shopping district and homes that are there now. Ramona Park is long gone, but the name “Gaslight Village” and a historical marker keep its memory alive.