Capitol Hill Walk - Orange Dots

Start your tour by parking at Capitol Hill School, #7 on the map above.

1. Capitol Hill School (1860) A restored 19th century two-room schoolhouse with a reproduced bell tower. Visitors can experience writing on a slate tablet.
2. Calhoun County Fairgrounds & Museums (1839) The Calhoun County Fair was first held downtown in 1839 to educate farmers on the newest farming technology. In 1845, a fair was held on the “Capitol Hill” site,  so named because it was thought that Marshall would become Michigan’s state capital and this tract of land would house the capitol building. Marshall did not win the vote, but the fair became a yearly event and is now Michigan’s longest running county fair. In 1860, Floral Hall was built and used during the Civil War as barracks by the First Michigan Volunteer Infantry Regiment, “Abraham Lincoln’s Own”, while they awaited the call to go to war. The grounds also include early 1800s structures including the Lockwood/Avery Granary, the Houston School, the Old Maple Grove Church and a Fair Museum.
3. Capital History By the early 1840s, the new Michigan government had a plan: along the route from Detroit to Chicago would be the important Michigan destinations: Ann Arbor would have the state university, Jackson the state prison, and Marshall the state capital. However, in 1847 a tract of undeveloped land in the center of the state become Michigan’s capital. It was named Lansing in 1848.
4. Governor’s Mansion (1839) The Governor’s Mansion was built in 1839 in anticipation of becoming the residence of the state’s governor. The Greek Revival dwelling never housed a governor, but the man who built it did serve as Michigan’s third governor (James Wright Gordon).
5. First Log Cabin (1830) When George and Sidney Kethcum first came to Marshall, they knew the best land to develop was where the Kalamazoo River met Rice Creek, however the mosquitoes there were terrible. The brothers built the first log cabin in Marshall up here, a little distance from the river, about where the B.E. Henry Building stands today.