The Fort Street Union Depot was a passenger train station located at the southwest corner of West Fort Street and Third Street in downtown

Detroit Detroit ( , ; , ) is the largest city in the U.S. state of Michigan. It is also the largest U.S. city on the United States–Canada border, and the seat of government of Wayne County. The City of Detroit had a population of 639,111 at t ...

Michigan Michigan () is a U.S. state, state in the Great Lakes region, Great Lakes region of the Upper Midwest, upper Midwestern United States. With a population of nearly 10.12 million and an area of nearly , Michigan is the List of U.S. states and ...

. It served the city from 1893 to 1971, then demolished in 1974. Today, the downtown campus of Wayne County Community College occupies the site.

History

The

union station A union station (also known as a union terminal, a joint station in Europe, and a joint-use station in Japan) is a railway station at which the tracks and facilities are shared by two or more separate railway companies, allowing passengers to ...

began construction in 1891 and opened to the public January 21, 1893. It consolidated the operations and services of several rail companies serving Detroit with the exception of the

New York Central Railroad The New York Central Railroad was a railroad primarily operating in the Great Lakes and Mid-Atlantic regions of the United States. The railroad primarily connected greater New York and Boston in the east with Chicago and St. Louis in the Mid ...

and Canadian Pacific Railway, which used

Michigan Central Station Michigan Central Station (also known as Michigan Central Depot or MCS) is the historic former main intercity passenger rail station in Detroit, Michigan. Built for the Michigan Central Railroad, it replaced the original depot in downtown Detroit ...

, and the

Grand Trunk Western Railroad The Grand Trunk Western Railroad Company is an American subsidiary of the Canadian National Railway operating in Michigan, Illinois, Indiana, and Ohio. Since a corporate restructuring in 1971, the railroad has been under CN's subsidiary holding ...

, which used Brush Street Station. The

Baltimore & Ohio Railroad The Baltimore and Ohio Railroad was the first common carrier railroad and the oldest railroad in the United States, with its first section opening in 1830. Merchants from Baltimore, which had benefited to some extent from the construction of ...

used the Fort Street facility intermittently. B&O never had its own tracks between Toledo and Detroit. When Pere Marquette (then later C&O which had acquired PM) handled B&O trains north of Toledo, those trains went to Fort Street. When handled by Michigan Central (later New York Central) they went to Michigan Central Station. Upon its opening, the station was located in a transportation district which included the original Michigan Railroad Central Depot two blocks south, and the

Detroit and Cleveland Navigation Company Detroit and Cleveland Navigation Company, often abbreviated as D&C, was a shipping company on the Great Lakes. Operations The main route was between Detroit, Michigan, and Cleveland, Ohio. Routes also lead to Buffalo, New York with the purchase ...

nearby on the Detroit River. The station was extensively renovated in 1946, adding a restaurant, fluorescent lighting, a baggage room, train gates and other updated amenities.

Urban renewal Urban renewal (also called urban regeneration in the United Kingdom and urban redevelopment in the United States) is a program of land redevelopment often used to address urban decay in cities. Urban renewal involves the clearing out of blighte ...

in the 1950s saw the construction of Cobo Hall to the south of the station, and the tunneling of the Lodge Freeway beneath the railway tracks. However, due to dwindling ridership, the station closed April 30, 1971, and despite the attempts of preservationists to repurpose the building, was demolished in January 1974.

Architecture

The depot was built in the

Romanesque Revival Romanesque Revival (or Neo-Romanesque) is a style of building employed beginning in the mid-19th century inspired by the 11th- and 12th-century Romanesque architecture. Unlike the historic Romanesque style, Romanesque Revival buildings tended to ...

architectural style by architect James Stewart, a follower of

Henry Hobson Richardson Henry Hobson Richardson, FAIA (September 29, 1838 – April 27, 1886) was an American architect, best known for his work in a style that became known as Richardsonian Romanesque. Along with Louis Sullivan and Frank Lloyd Wright, Richardson is one ...

. "The depot was described by architectural critics as monumental and gutsy, and of being in a solid, aggressive style. W. Hawkins Ferry, in his ''The Buildings of Detroit,'' described the station as being of 'robust plastic composition'. Ross and Carlin mention it proudly as 'an ornament to the city' in their ''Landmarks of Detroit'', published before the turn of the century."

Service

Several named passenger trains departed from the station; many were long-distance flagship trains of their respective railroads. The Pere Marquette had unnamed service to Bay City via

Flint Flint, occasionally flintstone, is a sedimentary cryptocrystalline form of the mineral quartz, categorized as the variety of chert that occurs in chalk or marly limestone. Flint was widely used historically to make stone tools and sta ...

and

Saginaw Saginaw () is a city in the U.S. state of Michigan and the seat of Saginaw County. The city of Saginaw and Saginaw County are both in the area known as Mid-Michigan. Saginaw is adjacent to Saginaw Charter Township and considered part of Greater ...

Remnants

Parts of the structure are housed at the B&O Railroad Museum in

Baltimore, Maryland Baltimore ( , locally: or ) is the List of municipalities in Maryland, most populous city in the U.S. state of Maryland, fourth most populous city in the Mid-Atlantic (United States), Mid-Atlantic, and List of United States cities by popula ...

. Several large pieces from the station have been saved in a warehouse in nearby Fort Wayne.

References

External links

Historic Detroit: Article on the terminal, including photo
{{coord, 42.3273, -83.0545, type:railwaystation_region:US-MI, display=title Railway stations closed in 1971 Former railway stations in Michigan Richardsonian Romanesque architecture in Michigan Former Chesapeake and Ohio Railway stations Demolished buildings and structures in Detroit Demolished railway stations in the United States Former Wabash Railroad stations Railway stations in Detroit Railway stations in the United States opened in 1893