Plainwell, formerly known as Plainfield, was incorporated as a municipality in 1869 and became a city on March 12, 1934. Set along the Kalamazoo River and the Mill Race, it became known as “The Island City.” Main Street, also known as 10th Street or Old US-131, was once part of the Old Plank Road from Grand Rapids to Kalamazoo. Hicks Park, first called the Flat Iron for its shape, lies between Allegan Street and West Bridge Street in the center of town, with Church Street at its rear; dedicated at Plainwell’s first homecoming in 1907, it is the city’s oldest park and was named for village president Joseph Hicks after J.F. Eesley gave the flat iron property to the village. Eesley’s J.F. Eesley Buckwheat Mill, first on West Bridge Street between W. Bridge and Chart Streets, was moved in 1904 to the 700 block of East Bridge Street to make room for the Ingraham and Travis Implement Store, and the Sunshine Buckwheat Mill was once one of the largest producers of buckwheat flour in the United States. Plainwell Paper Mill began as Michigan Paper Company in 1886 and was also known as Hamilton Paper and Simpson Paper; producing paper materials from waste paper, it played an important role in the community’s history and development before operations ended in November 2000, and the city acquired it in August 2006 for redevelopment as a multi-use facility. The brick Bridge Street School, built in 1910 to replace an outgrown white schoolhouse, did not open until 1912 after more rooms were added; in 1968 the school administration moved there after students shifted to new buildings, remained until 1984, and the building was then sold for restoration as apartments. In 1886 the village bought property next to Firemen’s Hall on West Bridge Street for a new jail, but after nearby citizens objected, an emergency village council meeting gave them 24 hours to buy another site, and enough money was raised to build the jail in the alley behind the present fire station.