East Hills

Head east from downtown Grand Rapids and the grid tightens into a compact square bounded roughly by Fulton, Fuller, Wealthy, and Union. Three commercial spines run through it — Cherry Street, Wealthy Street, and East Fulton — and most of what you'd want on a given day sits within a few leafy blocks: cafes, bakeries, small groceries, galleries, and everyday storefronts. The Cherry Street stretch is the best-known of the three, a run of narrow-fronted shops and restaurants. Walkability is the practical draw here; the area scores near the top nationally on foot-traffic measures, and the errands people usually drive to are, in East Hills, a walk. The housing stock skews old. A large share of the residential buildings — well over two-thirds — date to 1939 or earlier, which shows up as maple-shaded blocks of late-19th and early-20th-century houses, plus older brick apartment buildings closer to Wealthy Street with tall windows and original woodwork. Newer townhomes and condos cluster around the corner of Lake Drive and Diamond Avenue, so the architectural range runs from Victorian-era frame houses to recent infill within a short walk. Several local historic districts fall inside these boundaries, which is part of why the streets have kept their older character rather than being redrawn. East Hills is also one of the four districts — with East Fulton, Eastown, and Wealthy Street — that make up the Uptown corridor just east of the city center, so the commercial edges bleed into neighboring business strips. For the civic side — the council that runs the concerts, cleanups, and historic-district work — see the East Hills association page.