Grand Rapids, Michigan

=== Twentieth century: Furniture City ===
Due to its flourishing furniture industry, Grand Rapids began being recognized as "Furniture City". Grand Rapids was also an early center for the [[automobile industry]], as the [[Austin Automobile Company]] operated there from 1901 until 1921.{{wide image|Grand Rapids c1915 6a13439u.jpg|900px|align-cap=center|A 1915 panorama, when the furniture industry peaked before the Great Depression.}}Furniture companies included the William A. Berkey Company and its successors, [[Baker Furniture Company]], Williams-Kimp, and [[Widdicomb Furniture Company]].<ref>{{cite web |title = Furniture Detective: Not All Antique Grand Rapids Furniture Is Grand |url = http://www.antiquetrader.com/featured/furniture-detective-not-all-antique-grand-rapids-furniture-is-grand |website = The Antique Trader |date = August 10, 2022 |access-date = August 16, 2014 |archive-date = August 19, 2014 |archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20140819090037/http://www.antiquetrader.com/featured/furniture-detective-not-all-antique-grand-rapids-furniture-is-grand |url-status = live }}</ref> The furniture industry began to grow significantly into the twentieth century; in 1870 there were eight factories employing 280 workers and by 1911, [[Old National Bank]] wrote that about 8,500 were employed by forty-seven factories.<ref name=":03"/><ref name="VIVA">{{cite book |last1 = Flaherty |first1 = Viva |title = History of the Grand Rapids Furniture Strike With Facts Hitherto Unpublished |date = October 1911 |pages = 1–29 }}</ref> At least a third of the workers in Grand Rapids were employed by furniture companies.<ref name=":03" /> ''The Grand Rapids Furniture Record'' was the trade paper for the city's industry. Its industries provided jobs for many new immigrants from Europe in the late 19th and early 20th century, and a Polish neighborhood developed on the west side of the city.

==== Strike of 1911 ====
{{Main|1911 Grand Rapids furniture workers strike}}
[[File:Grand Rapids furniture strike - riot police.jpg|left|thumb|The [[riot police]] who responded to the [[1911 Grand Rapids furniture workers strike]]]]

By the early twentieth century, the quality of furniture produced in Grand Rapids was renowned throughout furniture industry, mainly due to the skill of its workers.<ref name="VIVA" /> Government reports in 1907 revealed that while Grand Rapids lead the industry in product output, its furniture workers were paid lower wages than in other areas.<ref name="VIVA" /> After a minor dispute, workers were inspired to form [[labor union]]s; workers requested furniture companies to increase [[wage]]s, fewer working hours, the creation of [[collective bargaining]] and the institution of a [[minimum wage]] to replace [[piece work]].<ref name=":03" /><ref name="VIVA" /> The furniture businesses refused to respond with unions as they believed that any meeting represented recognition of unions.<ref name=":03" /><ref name="VIVA" />

Workers in Grand Rapids then began a four month long [[general strike]] on April 19, 1911.<ref name=":03" /><ref name="MLIVE12">{{Cite web |last = Martinez |first = Shandra |date = April 3, 2011 |title = Labor strife in Wisconsin reminiscent of great furniture strike of 1911 in Grand Rapids |url = https://www.mlive.com/business/west-michigan/2011/04/labor_strife_in_wisconsin_remi.html |access-date = August 7, 2021 |website = MLive |language = en |archive-date = June 13, 2021 |archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20210613024159/https://www.mlive.com/business/west-michigan/2011/04/labor_strife_in_wisconsin_remi.html |url-status = live }}</ref> Much of the public, the mayor, the press and the Catholic diocese supported the strike, believing that the unwillingness of business leaders to negotiate was unjust. Skilled and unskilled factory labor was mainly Dutch (60 percent) and Polish (25 percent), primarily immigrants. According to the 1911 Immigration Commission report, the Dutch had an average of 8 percent higher wages than the Poles even when they did the same work. The pay difference was based on seniority and not ethnicity, but given that the Dutch had arrived earlier, seniority was linked to ethnicity.<ref name=":03" /><ref name="VIVA" /> Ultimately, the Christian Reformed Church – where the majority of Dutch striking workers congregated – and the [[Fountain Street Church]] – led opposition to the strike, which resulted in its end on August 19, 1911.<ref name=":03" /><ref name="MLIVE12" />

The strike resulted with substantial changes to the governmental and labor structure of the city.<ref name="MLIVE12" /> With businesses upset with Mayor Ellis for supporting the strike lobbied for the city to change from a twelve-ward government – which more accurately represented the city's ethnic groups – to a smaller three ward system that placed more power into the demands of Dutch citizens, the city's largest demographic.<ref name=":06">{{Cite journal |last = Erdmans |first = Mary Patrice |date = Autumn 2005 |title = The Poles, the Dutch and the Grand Rapids Furniture Strike of 1911 |journal = [[Polish American Studies]] |volume = 62 |issue = 2 |pages = 5–22 |doi = 10.2307/20148725 |jstor = 20148725 |s2cid = 254436229 }}</ref><ref name="MLIVE12"/> Some workers who participated in the strike were [[blacklisted]] by companies and thousands of dissatisfied furniture workers emigrated to higher paying regions.<ref name=":03" /><ref name="VIVA" />

==== Move to retail and suburbanization ====
[[File:Grand Rapids Monroe Center 1965.jpg|thumb|Monroe Center in January 1965, with [[Sears]], [[S. S. Kresge Company]], [[Steketee's]] and Wurzburg's visible]]

Shifting from its furniture-centric industry, downtown Grand Rapids temporarily became a retail destination for the region, hosting four department stores: Herpolsheimer's ([[Lazarus (department store)|Lazarus]]), [[Jacobson's]], [[Steketee's]] (founded in 1862), and Wurzburg's. In 1945, Grand Rapids became the first city in the United States to add [[fluoridation|fluoride]] to its drinking water. National home furnishing conferences were held in Grand Rapids for about seventy-five years, concluding in the 1960s. By that time, the furniture-making industry had largely shifted to [[North Carolina]].<ref>{{cite web |title = North Carolina, the Furniture Capital of the World |url = http://www.visitnc.com/story/north-carolina-the-furniture-capital-of-the-world |website = Visit NC |access-date = August 16, 2014 |archive-date = July 30, 2014 |archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20140730180918/https://www.visitnc.com/story/north-carolina-the-furniture-capital-of-the-world |url-status = live }}</ref>

As with many older cities in the United States, retail in the city suffered as the population moved to suburbs in the postwar era with federal subsidization of highway construction. The Grand Rapids suburb [[Wyoming, Michigan|Wyoming]] began to develop rapidly in the 1950s and 1960s following the opening of retail outlets such as [[Rogers Plaza]] and Wyoming Village Mall on [[M-11 (Michigan highway)|28th Street]], with developments built so quickly that they were finished without utilities.<ref name="CVDS77">{{cite book |last1 = Vaughn |first1 = Charles |title = The City of Wyoming: A History |last2 = Simon |first2 = Dorothy |date = 1984 |publisher = Four Corners Press |location = Franklin, Michigan |pages = 77–112 }}</ref> Consolidation of department stores occurred in Grand Rapids and nationally in the 1980s and 1990s.