~Marvin Gaye
I read a blog post by a friend and fellow blogger the other day. It got me thinking about the heartbreak I feel whenever I drive in to downtown Detroit. Detroit is my hometown, although I don't necessarily remember it in it's glory or heyday. You have to be blind or completely indifferent to be stoic in the dregs of Detroit.
If you do a Google image search for Michigan Central Depot or Detroit Rail Station you will see a plethora of pictures of the once grand, now gutted and condemned building that is the obligatory image of the beautiful and horrific decline of a once vibrant and thriving city. So today I learned something about the fate of a railroad station in the Automotive Capital of the World.
There are some great pictures here, comparing the building as it was in 1973 (just before it closed the first time) and in 2008 after years of neglect, thievery and vandalism.
Michigan Central Depot was opened in 1913. It was built with every bit of the grandeur of Grand Central Station. Despite the relative isolation of the station there was a streetcar terminal at the north entrance, and it was expected that business would build up around the station as had happened with Penn Station in New York. Keep in mind that this was 1913 - well before cars became the preferred mode of transportation.
Michigan Central Depot was a beautiful building with beaux-arts neoclassical styling. Massive arched windows and Corinthian columns formed the building front. The inside was modeled largely like an ancient Roman bathhouse. There were vaulted ceilings and paired Doric columns and a huge copper skylight. There was a restaurant and a coffee shop. There was also limited parking (remember this was built when there were still few automobiles).
There were several floors above the terminal, used as offices. The uppermost floor (18th story) was never completed. There was also a basement that was used for baggage handling and mail.
Between WWII (a busy time for the station) and 1956, passenger traffic became so depleted as to spur an attempt to sell the station. The facilities within the depot began to close quickly thereafter and the building began to deteriorate.
Amtrak took over national passenger service in 1971 giving the depot a last hurrah. Renovations were made in 1978 including new tracks. The above story offices were occupied by rail company employees. But it was not to last. There were no passengers riding from the Michigan Central Depot and in 1988 the building was closed for all time.
It still stands, a decrepit monument surrounded by barbed wire, a testament to what the city of Detroit once was, and a harsh reminder of what it has now become.
Note: If I won a huge lottery jackpot, I would buy and renovate this building, employing only Detroit residents. There are plenty of people still living there that remember this beautiful building when it was vibrant and untouched by dire circumstance.
Something else I learned: Gerald Ford would have rather played football for the Detroit Lions than have been president of the US.
When I was 10, I took a milk-train (stopped at every single town from Detroit to Paw Paw...it was a 10 hour ride), to baby sit for my cousin Bruce while the family picked asparagus. I remember the train station noises, temperature and bright golden colors. Awesome, in the truest sense of the word. In your research, did you find any mention of the Post Office being housed in this building?
ReplyDeleteps When I happen to drive past it now, it seems to show me a ghost of that picture from the past...and how what was important once, can change so quickly in one lifetime.
ReplyDeleteWhere is todays post?
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