Brief History of Grand Traverse County

The name Grand Traverse comes from the French in the early fur trading days who describe the nine-mile voyager trail along the shore across the foot of Grand Traverse Bay, as Le Grand Traverse or "the long crossing." Originally, it was named Omeena, with the probable meaning, "the point beyond." The County was a part of Mackinaw, but was organized by act approved April 7, 1851, as Grand Traverse County. Traverse City was incorporated as a village by an Act of Legislature in 1881 and on April 30, 1895 was incorporated as a City under a special charter. The territory west of Grand Traverse Bay was called Leelanau and to the east was called Omena. The Grand Traverse area was part of Omena.

The first meeting of the Board of Supervisors was held at the store of Cowles & Campbell, in the town of Peninsula on July 27, 1853. The first County building was erected in 1854 and destroyed by fire approximately eight years later. A schoolhouse located where the Park Place Annex was located west of the Park Place Hotel, was used as a courthouse during a session of Circuit Court. As of June 10, 1861 there were located two buildings in the public square known as the courthouse and jail, but the courthouse burned down and the jail was of little value. Soon after, a small wooden structure for the jail was erected on County grounds and County offices rented. The Honorable D.C. Leach erected a building on the corner of Front and Park Streets and provided it with a room for holding Court and with County offices.

At a session of the Board of Supervisors held0 October 1882, it was resolved to build a jail and sheriff's residence of brick. This building was completed in February 1884 and the County offices were moved into the new jail building.

On the 24th day of June 1898 the Grand Traverse County Board of Supervisors entered into an agreement with Jordan E. Gibson of Indiana, contractor for the construction of the present Courthouse building on the grounds known as the "Courthouse Square" to be completed before May 1, 1899.

At a meeting of the County Board of June 12, 1963, a resolution was adopted creating the County Building Authority to undertake the construction of a new County Jail and Sheriff's residence. The jail and residence were completed August of 1965, and were financed by Revenue Bonds to be retired by an annual rental from the County.

On October 27, 1964 the board entered into an agreement to build a modern County jail and on May 6, 1966 it was completed and the Grand Traverse County Building Authority formerly accepted the building.

A joint meeting was held at that time by the Grand Traverse County Board of Supervisors Construction Committee and the Traverse City Commissioners to discuss the advisability of constructing a City-County Building.

A City-County Governmental Center was completed in 1979 and the old courthouse was under agreement with the firm of Architects International of Chicago, IL to renovate the Courthouse building to be used by the Circuit and District Courts and other offices serving the courts.

• Kingsley (1)
• Traverse City (25)
• Williamsburg (1)