Stevensville, MI

Stevensville is a one-square-mile Berrien County village inside Lincoln Charter Township, built around a railroad that arrived in 1870. Thomas Stevens laid out the village in 1871, and by 1878 it had a hotel, gristmill, shops, churches, and several dozen homes. Two major fires nearly wiped the place out in the early twentieth century, but fruit farming and tourism helped it rebuild. Today the village’s commercial downtown has restaurants, shops, a bar, and a brewery, while Lakeshore Public Schools serve students from kindergarten through high school. Stevensville is southwest Michigan with a rail-born downtown, a fire-tested past, and a small-town main street that kept going.