Lennon, MI

Lennon is a village laid directly across the Shiawassee-Genesee county line in mid-Michigan. M-13 bisects the village, with M-21 about a mile north and I-69 about a mile south, so the place grew up as both a crossroads and a boundary town. Peter Lennon secured a Grand Trunk Western railroad route through the settlement, then built a depot and grain elevator. The post office opened in 1880 with Lennon as postmaster, and the village incorporated in the 1970s. The old railroad story still makes sense when you look at the map: highways now do the connecting, but the village began with a man arranging for the tracks to come through.

Present-day Lennon keeps its civic scale visible in small places. The Lennon branch of Community District Library operates inside Village Hall and offers full library service, programs, Wi-Fi, and patron computers. The village's position on M-13 also puts it between the I-69 connection south and M-21 north, with the county line running through the middle. There is something memorable about that arrangement: one village, two counties, a state highway down the center, and a library sharing space with the municipal hall. Lennon is easy to orient once those four pieces are in view.