Dr. Samuel Foster and his family built the first frame structure just west of here on the banks of the Kalamazoo River in the fall of 1831. First called Allegan, the settlement was officially renamed Otsego in 1835 after land developer Horace Comstock of Otsego County, New York, purchased much of what is now downtown and established a post office. In the late 1830s, a dam and mill race were built, and by then a lumber mill, a grist mill, and several retail businesses had been established. Hotels including The Exchange, Tompkins House, and The Hotel Revere served visitors. The Otsego Chair Company sent furniture throughout the Midwest from 1871 through 1915, and the Eady Shoe Factory on nearby Helen Avenue made shoes for more than three decades. Otsego entered the paper industry in 1887 with the construction of the Bardeen Paper Mill, and by 1907 seven paper mills were operating along the Kalamazoo River. An island east of the Farmer Street bridge held a popular park for many years, but flooding and the dangers of reaching it led to its closure in the 1920s. The site was also home to Otsego’s Mineral Springs Bathhouse, which thrived from 1870 to 1887.