Parma, MI

Parma is a Jackson County village of 780 residents in the 2020 census, divided by the line between Parma Township and Sandstone Charter Township. The village began at Gidley's Station on the Michigan Central Railroad, a few miles east of its current site. After the settlement moved, it was called Groveland for a prominent grove of trees, then Parma when the village incorporated in 1847. In the early twentieth century, locals also used the name Cracker Hill, a reminder that place names can stack up around one small crossroads.

The interurban station now serves as the village library, giving the old transportation network a second life. Parma's surrounding land remains largely agricultural, although Jackson-area growth has reached into the countryside. The former Parma Union School District consolidated in 1957 to form the Western School District; Parma students now share Western High School with nearby Spring Arbor and part of Jackson, while Albion College and Jackson College serve as regional higher-education connections. The township line still bisects the village, so Parma is a place where railroad history, school boundaries, and farm country meet on one map.