Olivet, MI

Olivet is an Eaton County city whose story grew around the college founded here in 1844. The school began as Olivet College and became the University of Olivet in 2023, but the older name still shapes the city: campus buildings, Main Street, and the surrounding streets share the same small-town grid. Olivet remained a village for over a century before becoming a city in 1958. The university's early history also matters beyond the campus, since it was founded as a Michigan institution that admitted women and people of color on equal terms with white men. Olivet is a place where a college, a city name, and a long argument for access to education sit in the same few blocks.