Best Web Design in Olivet, MI (2026)

Web Design for Olivet, Michigan

Olivet exists because a preacher got lost in the Michigan woods, decided the hill he stumbled onto was divine direction, named it after the Mount of Olives, and came back on February 24, 1844 with 39 followers, ox-carts and herds. The college they built became the first in Michigan to admit women and people of color on equal terms with white men, graduated a class of three women in 1863, and later drew Gertrude Stein, Carl Sandburg, W.H. Auden and Ford Madox Ford to a farm town of about a thousand people. Today its median age is 21.6 years, the youngest kind of number a Michigan city can post, because the college on the hill is still the reason the place is there.

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

About Olivet

Also known as. New Oberlin -- what founder John J. Shipherd called the colony he planted on the hill in 1844, after the Ohio college he had already founded. Olivet -- Shipherd's own name for the hilltop, taken from the biblical Mount of Olives.

History. Founded February 24, 1844, when the Reverend John J. "Father" Shipherd -- who had already founded Oberlin College in Ohio -- arrived by ox-cart on a wilderness hilltop with 39 followers, driving their herds before them. He had found the site by accident after getting lost, believed God had led him there, and named the hill Olivet. Chartered first as Olivet Institute; the state granted it a college charter in 1859. Olivet was the first college in Michigan to admit women and persons of color on a co-equal basis with white men, and the second coeducational college in the United States after Oberlin. The first graduating class, in 1863, consisted of three women and no men. The First Congregational Church congregation organized in 1845; the present Ionia sandstone, Richardsonian Romanesque building -- the congregation's third -- was designed by Milwaukee architect Henry F. Starbuck and dedicated in 1894. On March 24, 1888 Olivet was one of four charter members, with Albion, Hillsdale and Michigan Agricultural College, of the Michigan Intercollegiate Athletic Association, the oldest college athletic conference in the United States. From the early 1930s to the mid 1940s, under President Joseph Brewer, Olivet College hosted Sinclair Lewis, Sherwood Anderson, Katherine Anne Porter, Carl Sandburg, Ford Madox Ford, W.H. Auden and Gertrude Stein. Ford lectured there from 1937 until his death in 1939. In 1992 racial violence and harassment on campus led 51 of the college's 55 Black students to leave. The college responded with a diversity committee, an Office of Multicultural Education, a Women's Center, Global Cultures and African-American Cultures centers, and a two-course diversity requirement, and the turnaround became a national case study in institutional transformation.

Local economy. Education is the largest employment sector: of roughly 857 employed residents, about 202 work in educational services, 132 in manufacturing and 95 in accommodation and food services. The University of Olivet is the anchor institution, employer and reason for most of the town's foot traffic and housing demand. Olivet Community Schools, the Eagles in green and white, serve pre-kindergarten through grade 12 for the surrounding area. Interstate 69 curves around the north side of town at the Ainger Road interchange, connecting Olivet to Lansing, Charlotte and Battle Creek; MDOT began rebuilding I-69 between Ainger Road in Olivet and Island Highway in Charlotte in March 2021. Historically the Grand Trunk railroad depot was one of the busiest places in town, shipping grain and livestock from local farms to Detroit and Chicago, and the Olivet Mills ground and packed grain using local water power. By the 1920s trucking replaced rail shipping, the depot's importance fell away, and gas stations and new services replaced older Main Street businesses.

Culture and community. University of Olivet teams are the Comets, a name chosen in 1932 from student and faculty submissions asked to signify action, speed and mobility; the mascots are Clyde and Haley. Olivet Community Schools field the Eagles, giving a town of 1,517 two distinct sets of school colors and rivalries. The college's Sandburg-Auden-Stein poet-in-residence program carries forward the 1930s and 1940s literary residencies by name. Main Street eating and gathering spots include The Farmer's Scoop for seasonal ice cream and burgers, Milligan's Whitetail Market for wings and barbecue, Tim's Pizza for specialty pies and subs, and Main Street Mixers for gourmet drinks. Downtown shops include My Happy Place, a thrift store, and Peacock Creations, selling handmade jewelry, crafts and gifts. Cornwell's Turkeyville, about 15 minutes away, is the region's part-restaurant, part-country-store, part-entertainment-venue destination, and the historic town of Marshall is about 20 minutes south.

What makes Olivet distinct. Olivet exists because someone got lost. Shipherd wandered off course in the wilderness, came on a hill of unusual beauty, took it as divine direction, and founded a town and college on the spot. The median age at the 2020 census was 21.6 years -- extraordinarily young for a Michigan city, because the college population dominates a town of 1,517. Olivet's first graduating class, in 1863, was three women -- no men graduated at all. Hiram Archer, who attended Olivet from 1889 to 1905 and played varsity baseball, was one of the first African-American intercollegiate athletes in the nation. Gertrude Stein, W.H. Auden, Carl Sandburg, Sinclair Lewis and Ford Madox Ford all turned up at a small Michigan farm-town college in the 1930s and 1940s; Ford taught there until he died in 1939. Olivet and Albion are the only charter members still in the MIAA, the oldest college athletic conference in the country, though only Albion has held continuous membership. Since August 1, 2023 the city and its college have carried slightly different names: the city is still Olivet, the school is The University of Olivet. The town was founded by abolitionist Congregationalists as a college open to all races -- which is precisely why the 1992 exodus of Black students shocked the campus and forced a rebuilding that scholars still study.

Olivet Landmarks and Local Life

• Hance House - Brick Late Victorian house built in 1884 at 217 Yale Street, listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1972 and now the college president's residence.
• Burrage Library - Built in 1890 on the University of Olivet campus and recognized by the university as the longest continuously operating library in Michigan.
• Hosford House (Hosford History Center and Lawrence Archives) - Erected in 1849 by Oramel and Abigail Hosford, it is the oldest building still standing on campus and holds the university archives.
• First Congregational Church - Church at 125 College Street in Olivet, designated a Michigan State Historic Site on April 30, 1994.
• Olivet College Michigan State Historic Site marker - Informational state historic designation at the northeast corner of College Avenue and Main Street, registered on March 19, 1958.
• Memorial Park - City park holding the Trenton Shrontz Playground and formerly called Independence Park, with a pavilion open to all on a first come, first served basis.
• University of Olivet public sports facilities - The university opens a baseball field, basketball courts, a swimming pool and outdoor tennis courts for public use in the city.

Olivet at a Glance

U.S. Census Bureau, ACS 2023.

• Median household income: About $44,940
• Housing: About 49% of occupied housing units are owner-occupied
• Housing: About 53% of housing units are single-family detached homes

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