Standale

Standale is the commercial strip of the City of Walker, strung along Lake Michigan Drive (M-45) on the west side of the Grand Rapids metro. It isn't a separate municipality — census and government records roll up into Walker — but the name has stuck with locals, businesses, and the Postal Service, which still gives the area its own ZIP code, 49534. Because M-45 runs straight west to Grand Valley State University's Allendale campus, the corridor doubles as the everyday gateway that campus commuters pass through, and Grand Valley keeps its Surplus Store right on Standale Plaza. Walker itself was organized as a township in 1837 and became a city in 1962. The name "Standale" is harder to pin down — Walker's early township records burned in a mid-1800s fire, and the popular story tying it to an old Standard Oil filling station ("Standard" plus "dale") is local lore more than documented fact.