Best Web Design in Ithaca, MI (2026)

Web Design for Ithaca, Michigan

Ithaca is a 2,800-person county seat near the geographic middle of Michigan's Lower Peninsula whose downtown looks like it was built for a much bigger town, because it was: twenty late-Victorian red-brick blocks on East Center Street and a Berea sandstone courthouse with Corinthian columns and an oak-and-marble rotunda that a local paper in 1902 called the best outside Detroit and Grand Rapids. It is a farm town of a specific kind, sitting inside a county that keeps almost 80% of its land in farms and now hosts a 45-million-bushel soybean crushing plant on land that a failed ethanol project abandoned. And for six years it was the most feared small-town football program in Michigan, running off 69 straight wins and four consecutive undefeated state championship seasons.

AppWT serves Ithaca and the surrounding Michigan area from Livonia, Michigan.

About Ithaca

Also known as. Gratiot Center (the settlement's original name, 1855 to April 13, 1857). Home of the Gratiot County Seat (the city's own description). City motto: "Cherishing Our Past... Living for the Future. Come Grow With Us.". Yellowjackets (the school identity that carries the town, whose mascot is a yellow jacket named Jack).

History. 1850: James J. Bush of Howell became the first settler in the area. John Jeffery relocated here permanently in 1855, and the settlement was platted in 1856 under the name Gratiot Center. November 16, 1855: the Gratiot Center post office was granted, with John Knight as first postmaster. 1856: Gratiot County government was organized and the settlement was selected as county seat, which is what turned it from a clearing into a town. Gratiot County itself was named for Gen. Charles Gratiot, who built Fort Gratiot at Port Huron in 1814. April 13, 1857: the name was changed to Ithaca, after Ithaca, New York. Ithaca's original founders, like Alma's, were settlers from New England and New York who came west after the Erie Canal opened and the Black Hawk War closed. 1856: John Jeffery opened the first commercial enterprise. Hotel construction began around 1860, and 1869 brought incorporation as a village. 1875: the Richardson & Weatherwax grocery became the district's first brick commercial building. Fires in 1888, 1890 and 1905 pushed the rest of downtown from wood to brick, which is why 18 of the 20 buildings in the historic district date from 1875 to 1906. 1882: a railroad was built into the village, spurring industrial growth. 1900-1902: voters approved a stone courthouse, Jackson architect Claire Allen drew the plans, A. W. Mohnke built it, the cornerstone was laid in September 1900, and a clock was added to the tower in 1905.

Local economy. County seat economy: Gratiot County government, the courthouse and courts, county offices, and the professional and legal services that follow them. ZFS Ithaca, an affiliate of Zeeland Farm Services, built a soybean processing operation on a 435-acre site with capacity of 45 million bushels a year plus 6.8 million bushels of grain storage, served by both rail and truck, producing soybean meal, hulls and oil by solvent extraction. It was projected to create roughly 75 full-time jobs. Before it, Zeeland Farm Services' original Zeeland plant, at about 10 million bushels a year, was the only soybean processor in Michigan. Agriculture: almost 80% of the land in Gratiot County is in farms, and Ithaca is the market and service town for that acreage. Manufacturing across Gratiot County is a genuine base rather than a footnote. The county's five industrial parks hold about 2,000 full-time-equivalent jobs, more than 10% of the county workforce, producing pleasure boats, molded plastic parts, aircraft engine parts, auto parts and machined and fabricated goods. Wind energy: the Gratiot County Wind Project, a 133-turbine, 212.8 MW complex on roughly 30,000 acres of private land in Wheeler, Bethany, Emerson and Lafayette townships (Emerson borders Ithaca), was a $440 million build that employed 260 construction workers, retains 14 permanent staff, and is projected to pay about $35 million in taxes over 20 years. Power goes to DTE Energy under a 20-year agreement. Public sector: Ithaca Public Schools and city government are significant local employers; the county's full-service hospital, MidMichigan Medical Center-Gratiot, is in nearby Alma.

Culture and community. Ithaca Yellowjackets football built a 69-game winning streak beginning in 2009, including four consecutive 14-0 seasons, four straight Division 6 state championships and 24 consecutive state playoff wins. The streak ended in the 2014 Division 6 final, a 22-12 loss to Monroe St. Mary Catholic Central, three short of Hudson's state record 72 straight (1968-1975). The school mascot is a yellow jacket named Jack, and the district runs its whole K-12 program across three buildings. Ithaca Public Schools has maintained a sister-school exchange with the Goethe-Gymnasium in Ludwigslust, Germany since 1998. Downtown shopping clusters on Center Street: Creative Moments Gift Shop with two floors of handcrafted goods and artwork, Dream Works Resale Shoppe (a nonprofit-run consignment store), Lace and Grace Clothing Company, and a shop devoted to Michigan apples and cider. The Gratiot County Herald, the local paper, works out of 123 N. Main St. downtown. The city runs a seasonal farmers market and a community center available for reservations.

What makes Ithaca distinct. The county seat is not the county's big town. Ithaca had 2,853 residents in 2020 and runs Gratiot County government; Alma, the county's largest city, had 9,488. Ithaca is named for Ithaca, New York, which means online searches for the Michigan town are perpetually hijacked by the Finger Lakes one, festivals and all. The city sits at the junction of four townships at once: Emerson to the northeast, Arcada to the northwest, Newark to the southwest and North Star to the southeast. The 2020 census classifies Ithaca as 100% rural, despite the city having held city status since 1961. The soybean plant sits on land that was abandoned by someone else. The 435-acre ZFS Ithaca site had been earmarked for the Liberty Renewable Fuels ethanol plant, which collapsed in 2008 when its financing fell through. Downtown's uniform late-Victorian brick look was not planning, it was fire insurance. Three separate fires in 1888, 1890 and 1905 wiped out the wood-frame buildings, and one 1987 fire left a 1988 replacement standing inside a historic district otherwise built between 1875 and 1906. Ithaca's football streak was never just wins: four straight seasons ended 14-0, meaning the Yellowjackets went four full years without a single loss of any kind.

Ithaca Landmarks and Local Life

• Gratiot County Courthouse - The 1900 Neoclassical courthouse at 214 East Center Street was designed by architect Claire Allen and listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1976.
• Ithaca Downtown Historic District - Twenty commercial buildings on East Center Street, most built between 1875 and 1906, were listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 2005.
• Gratiot County Area Historical Museum - Opened in 1987 at 129 West Center Street in an 1881 red brick house, the museum holds artifacts from the 1850s through the 1950s.
• Atkinson Park - Developed by the Ithaca Rotary in memory of former mayor Bob Atkinson, the northeast side park has picnic benches and the city tree nursery.

Ithaca at a Glance

U.S. Census Bureau, ACS 2023.

• Median household income: About $62,375
• Housing: About 71% of occupied housing units are owner-occupied
• Housing: About 69% of housing units are single-family detached homes