Eidlitz, the architect responsible for One Times Square in New York City and the Dearborn Station (aka Polk Street Station) in Chicago, which opened two years after the MCRR station. "More than a mere excursion into nostalgia, the shutdown of the Michigan Central Depot should be the occasion of serious reflection about what we once were, what we have lost -- and what, given sufficient will, we could regain," the Free Press wrote in a January 1988 editorial. The Victorian structure with gingerbread trim had a three story tower and was said to be the most beautiful depot on the Michigan Central Railroad Line. The thriving railroad added vastly to its waterfront shed space and tracks to serve a growing Detroit. The long-derelict train station, once a symbol of the city's downfall, is becoming Detroit's premier revitalization project. Nobody had taken them down.". As a passenger entered the gates, he or she would go down an incline toward the train sheds. The railroad invested a total of $16 million (nearly $332 million today) on the new station, office building, yards and the underwater rail tunnel, which was inaugurated on Oct. 16, 1910. FILE - This Jan. 21, 2010, file photo shows the abandoned Michigan Central Depot train station in Detroit. Maybe there was time to get a magazine from the newsstand, but there was never enough time to grab a bite at the lunch counter in the back. Joined together, they are architecturally incongruous.". "Thus the new station stood last night, lights shining from windows high above the building line in the neighborhood, a sentinel of progress and a monument to the old depot which burned, as well as a marker to the railroading of today.". It had a one-floor underground parking garage. Finally, after decades of decay and abandonment, the New York Central Railroad came through with the money and the old depot was razed in June 1966. "I hate being associated with that," Moroun told the Detroit News in December 2008, said of MCS. From 1884 until 1913, the Michigan Central Railroad ran out of a depot downtown at Third and Jefferson. Michigan Central Railroad started purchasing land around 1908 for the new train station, according to HistoricDetroit.org. The passenger auditors alone took up the entire seventh floor. In April 1985, Conrail announced that it would try to sell the station -- or abandon it. It instills hope for both the city, and for saving this architectural marvel. "It is a thrill to see the old place struggle back to life," columnist Louis Cook wrote in the Free Press in October 1977. The depot was to be formally dedicated on Jan. 4, 1914, but a fire that started at 2:10 p.m. on Dec. 26, 1913, rendered the old depot unusable and forced MCS to be rushed into service early to avoid a disruption of service. "The new station was aglow, not with fire as was the old one some hours previous, but aglow with thousands of electric lights which glimmered high above the one and two story dwellings," the article said. The depot was designed by Cyrus L.W. The city's auditor general, Joseph Harris, even went so far as to call Kilpatrick's police plan "a fiscal pipe dream" in a memorandum to the Detroit City Council. Walking through bronze doors with mahogany trim, they'd be surrounded by cream-colored brick, marble finishes and massive soaring arches. Henry Ford traveled into MCS from New York riding The Detroiter -- and he rode in style in his own private car, “The Fairlane.” Baseball teams would arrive or leave victorious or not. There are 14 marble pillars set against the walls and at the entrance to the concourse. … The story of the new station's opening on a half hour's notice would hardly be believed. There were few workers and few trains, but if I recall correctly, there were still a number of signs denoting trains that were no longer running. The "central… There were fewer than a dozen trains coming and going each day about this time, and fewer than one thousand people working in the depot, running the northern division of the Penn Central railroad. There also were bathing facilities, where travelers could freshen up or get a shave before getting on the next train, and facilities where they could send telegrams, buy postcards to send home, or make telephone calls. At the beginning of World War I, the peak of rail travel in the United States, more than two hundred trains left the station each day and lines would stretch from the boarding gates back to the main entrance. Moving vans, which had been plying between the new station and the old, and various furniture and fixture establishments helped swell the tide of traffic. The flower shop and other amenities vanished. Each part taken separately might be good. Travelers would enter from Roosevelt Park into the building's centerpiece, the main waiting room. In 1976 Conrail purchased the bankrupt Penn Central and made a business decision … the Tribune noted. With the rapid growth of local industry it became necessary to replace the building. Inside, graffiti is everywhere, with some tags nearly 15 feet tall and dozens of feet long. While the depot was destroyed, the back of the station was still in use for decades longer. Restoration work has continued at the Michigan Central train station in Detroit … $5 million, the equivalent of $40 million today. While the tracks and freight sheds adjacent to the depot were still in use, vandals had smashed the windows as the old depot sat empty. Put simply, if Michigan Central Station cannot be the centerpiece of the city's rebirth, it should not stand solely as a testament to its decline. And the sheer mammoth proportions of the station was meant to be awe-inspiring and make a statement to travelers about the greatness of the city in which they were arriving and the railroad they were arriving on. The railroad also intended not only to accommodate every rail line running into Detroit, but also planned on leasing office space to their competitors, such as the C&O, Toledo & Ironton and the rival Pennsylvania. The asking price? "What the hell am I supposed to do with it? ... We all knew that neither railroad wanted it or even had any real intent on continued usage, so it … It was decided another, much larger depot should be built near the entrance to the tunnel, and Michigan Central began buying up land in the city's Corktown neighborhood just outside of downtown in the fall of 1908. Can’t tear it down, it’s an historic landmark.”, On April 7, 2009, the Detroit City Council passed a resolution requesting the emergency demolition of MCS at Moroun's expense. from 20.00. Among those who arrived at MCS were Presidents Herbert Hoover, Harry S. Truman and Franklin D. Roosevelt, actor Charlie Chaplin and inventor Thomas Edison. Seeing it lit up at night is truly a breathtaking sight. The restaurant was renamed the Mercury Room after The Mercury, billed as the "Train of Tomorrow," that ran out of the depot starting in 1936. Hopes that a symbol of the city's fall would become a symbol of its rebirth were dashed. The depot opened in late … The top layer is a steam train engraved on beautiful white birch. 1855 Michigan Central Railroad began using the telegraph to control train operations, making it the nation’s first railroad to make widespread use of this system. Mouse over to Zoom-Click to enlarge. Initially, the railroad's various departments filled seven of the floors, making it a "beehive of industry," the Free Press wrote Dec. 31, 1913. "In the '70s, as an adult, I traveled to Chicago by train many times, both for work as a Free Press sportswriter and because I had a girlfriend there," McGraw recalled. The tower's halls are lined with white marble wainscoting and terrazzo floors. It's this, it's that, you know?". "Needless to say, she was soundly 'spanked' before being returned to her basket," the Tribune said. Seller 100% positive. "If you imploded it, the amount of explosives you'd need would probably blow up half of Mexicantown. "During the forties, I took many a train ride to New York state, and also to Chicago in the other direction," said Ray Downing, a 73-year-old retired Detroit police officer now living in Henderson, Nev. "Trains fascinated me as a kid, so each trip was a treasure to me. But "the city should have no obligation whatsoever to tear it down.". Because of the fire, the dedication of Detroit's new station was canceled. Who would want to go in there? The last train left Michigan Central Station in 1988. Charles A. Reed and Allen Stem were known for their designs of railroad stations, while Whitney Warren and Charles D. Wetmore were considered experts in hotel design, which explains the hotel-like appearance of the building's office tower. Michigan Central Depot is undergoing a $350 million makeover by Ford Motor Co., which bought the vacant, 18-story structure in 2018, to turn the … In 1995, Controlled Terminals Inc. of Detroit acquired the building, by then already hit hard by scrappers, and erected a razor wire fence, but the building has been far from impenetrable.