Blood, Trauma, and Biohazard Cleanup in Grand Rapids, OH

Grand Rapids is a village in Wood County, Ohio, built on the south bank of the Maumee River at the head of the river's Grand Rapids.

Revolutionary War veteran Thomas Howard became the village's first settler in 1812, and the town was platted in 1833 by John N. Graham under the name Gilead.

When the state built a large dam across the Maumee at Gilead in 1845 that cut off water power to a local mill, outraged residents destroyed the dam; a side-cut canal built in response brought a canal-era boom instead.

The village adopted the name Grand Rapids in 1868, and the arrival of the railroad in 1877 brought another round of prosperity.

An ice jam on the Maumee River caused a major flood in February 1959 that damaged much of Grand Rapids and displaced 130 residents.

Grand Rapids is the hometown of world-renowned glass sculptor Dominick Labino, whose working studio remains in operation in the village.

Grand Rapids was also the hometown of Robyn Hancock, who was crowned Miss Ohio in 1996.

Restoration of the village's Victorian-era downtown architecture began in 1975, and Grand Rapids is now known for its preserved canal-town streetscape along the Maumee.

Grand Rapids had 925 residents at the 2020 census and is served by a branch of the Weston Public Library.

Just across the river, the rival canal town of Providence was destroyed by fire in 1846 and a cholera epidemic in 1854, leaving its 1830s St. Patrick's Catholic Church as a surviving landmark in today's Providence Metropark area.