Forest Grove Station (40th Avenue and Byron Road) was one of several stations along the Grand Rapids Railway electric interurban train system that ran from Grand Rapids to Holland during the first three decades of the 1900's. The stations were placed eight miles along the route (per the Western Michigan Railroad Historical Society). The spacing was based on the ability of a team of horses to pull a loaded wagon four miles in each direction.
On the west, the line ran on the north side of Byron Road, between houses that still exist and the present roadway. The train must have passed close enough for residents to reach out and touch it from the front porch.
At the town line, 48th Avenue, the tracks jogged to the south and ran parallel to the road headed for Zeeland. To the east, however, from Forest Grove Station, the line cut through Jamestown Township at an angle. Riding along Felch Street, Jamestown's first real road, you can see power lines that run diagonally through the corn fields along the old railroad right-of-way that was purchased by the utility companies.
East of 32nd Avenue, Felch Street disappears, but the interurban line has left its mark - a double track bridge in the middle of a field behind the house at 2764 Riley St.; the depot theme and station house at the library built over the tracks at Jamestown Center; and to the north of Greenly, evidence of the cross-country train route (in sections 16 and 17) that shuttled picnickers to within a half-mile of Spring Grove Park.
Forest Grove Station took its name from Forest Grove, already established by the time of the Civil War. But it might just as readily have been called Zutphen Station. There was only one store at Zutphen. There were two at Forest Grove, perhaps that is why they named it Forest Grove Station. A creamery was built near this corner in 1893 by Corneal Struik. Along with a few homes, both log and frame, this was of what Zutphen/Forest Grove Station consisted. The interurban was begun about 1900 and tracks west of Jenison opened in 1902. That is when John Brouwer built a store in the area. He also built an elevator and a barn, including 11 livery stables, and a place for butchering livestock. Then a blacksmith shop came. All of these businesses were run by Brouwer's relatives. It was nicknamed "Brouwer's Corners". With the railroad station came a powerhouse, a spur track to the gravel pit and another to the creamery, and a manmade pond for making ice. It was from Forest Grove Station that farm produce, leather goods, and many other cash products were shipped to Holland, and then to Chicago.
At the Townline Station on 48th Avenue, some children waited each school day to ride to Jamestown High School. The Townline Station was only a way station while the Forest Grove Station had a fulltime stationmaster and this was a main area for picking up passengers.
 

The Interurban stopped running in 1929.
 

In 1923 at the Forest Grove #7 Fr. school, a report was assigned to the children regarding the roads. "M-51 comes straight from Zeeland, parallel to the Michigan Railway up to Forest Grove Station. Jamestown will have its first concrete road when the proposed road from Grand Rapids to Holland (M-21) is completed. Good roads meant more automobiles.
All of the businesses that existed in the early 1900's are gone. Herbert DeKleine, historian for Jamestown Township, rescued the Townline Station building which now sits next to the new Patmos Library in Jamestown.