The Lake Odessa Area Historical Society and Museum in downtown Lake Odessa, Michigan, is home to a variety of historical items pertaining to the Lake Odessa area including an impressive collection of artifacts from a German POW camp that existed near Lake Odessa area during World War II, a Pere Marquette Railroad Depot built in 1887, a restored Grand Trunk Caboose, various local historical displays, the Ionia County Genealogical Library, and the Hosford House. Operations are determined by a board of directors but the historical society is solely managed by the president, John Waite. The museum is a private, non-profit museum completely self-funded through various events and through philanthropists. Depot building Built in 1888, the depot was originally the property of the Detroit, Lansing and Northern Railroad and later the Pere Marquette Railroad, which was a merger of three Michigan-based railway systems beginning in the late 1800s. Eventually this system become part of the C&O Railroad. The depot served Lake Odessa for over 82 years until the last tickets were sold to passengers in 1971. The building itself is not a large structure but it is important architecturally as it is the only Russian Ornate style building like this in the state of Michigan. In 1987 the railroad sold the depot to the historical society. The Depot consists of various rooms including a ticket office, a lobby which included both a ladies and a gentleman waiting rooms, and a baggage room. An interesting exhibit in the depot is a device constructed in the 1920s by Clair Goodsell. This periscope-like device would permit the user to peer into the water and see what they were dredging up. Freight station building Built in 2005 and reminiscent of the original freight station building, this building houses the main section of the museum. The building is also home to the Ionia County Genealogy Society and has an extensive library housing a wealth of information for anyone interested in their family history in this area. School room A re-creation of a classroom from the original Lake Odessa High School is in the Freight Station building. The high school, originally built in 1888, burned down and was rebuilt in 1921. This building was torn down in the 1990s but the historical society was able to retrieve several items from the building including the gymnasium scoreboard. Also in this room is a library commemorating the Lake Odessa