Ravenna, MI

Ravenna is a Muskegon County village in the southeast corner of Ravenna Township, with Crockery Creek passing through the east side and the Grand River beyond. The 2020 census counted 1,308 residents. Muskegon is to the west, Grand Rapids is farther southeast, and the village sits in the middle of the roads and farms between them. The geography gives Ravenna a small-town center with a regional reach.

Ravenna Public Schools has been part of the area since 1849. Beechnau Elementary is in the village, while the middle and high schools sit just beyond the village limits with the football stadium, track, and athletic fields. That campus arrangement is a good local detail: the village center and the school district spill into each other without sharing the same boundary. Ravenna is a place where the creek, the school, and the larger Muskegon-Grand Rapids corridor all meet. The school calendar gives the village a second center beyond the village line throughout the year.