Parchment, MI

Parchment is a Kalamazoo County city on the east side of the Kalamazoo River, just north of Kalamazoo. The 2020 census counted 1,926 residents. Its name comes from the Kalamazoo Vegetable Parchment Company, which Jacob Kindleberger started in 1909 in an old sugar-beet factory along the river. The mill drew workers, houses, schools, and a whole city around it, turning a paper product into one of Michigan's more memorable place names. Parchment was once known as the Paper City, and the mill's shadow still hangs over local memory even though papermaking ended in 2000.

Kindleberger Park, the Parchment Community Library's local-history collection, and the city's schools keep the industrial past close to everyday life. The Kalamazoo River gives the east side its geography, while Kalamazoo remains the larger neighbor for jobs, shopping, and college-town energy. Parchment's local scoop is a Michigan mill city with a name you can literally trace to what came out of the factory, plus a river running beside the old working heart.