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wp's Detroit (3): Michigan Central Station

wyliepoon

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Exterior and interior photos of Michigan Central Station, Detroit's famous abandoned railway station. The SSP forumers drove us out to the station for a look.

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Views of the space below the tracks. It is littered with debris, fallen piping and wiring. There are also trenches and uncovered access holes to drainage pipes below the floor. I guess we were kind of foolish to enter without hardhats, proper footwear, fall protection, and just one flashlight.

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One of the forumers (whom I shall keep unnamed) fell into this gaping hole in the dark and got a nasty bruise.

Navigating through the corridors of the station building...

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Into the waiting hall and concourse area (remember Transformers?). The play of light with the windows and the holes on the walls and the roof makes every photo taken in there a masterpiece!

The interior remind me of WWII footage of the ruins of the Reich Chancellery in Berlin, especially with the swastikas on the stone trim at the top of some walls.

While we were photographing the concourse (with the copper roof), we saw a piece of the roof come down and hit the floor with a loud bang. The SSP forumers told us that it might be caused by graffiti artists who were removing debris to do their tagging. While we were there we saw a man, obviously alone, admiring the stonework in the waiting hall.

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Spot the swastika!

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Heading out...

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Going down the stairs. All the railings on the stairs are gone.

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Another gaping hole in the floor. Fortunately none of us fell into it.
 
Thanks for the interior shots of this fascinating ruin Wylie! I can't imagine which forumer had the fall, but I hope his bruises are healing...

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Well, whomever that forumer was, he could sue our favourite bridge troll, Matty Maroun, for injuries sustained with regards to not securing his dangerous property. The razor wire and high fencing at the front is a mere show.
 
If these beautiful abandoned properties aren't restored before they collapse, perhaps eventually someone will buy them, dismantle the facade and put it up on a new building elsewhere. Look for it in MCC :p .
 
Wow. It's amazing to me that a place like this exists. It's like they won't even give it the dignity of tearing it down (not that they should, but it's really sad to see a great building suffer). Really surreal photos, thanks.
 
If these beautiful abandoned properties aren't restored before they collapse, perhaps eventually someone will buy them, dismantle the facade and put it up on a new building elsewhere. Look for it in MCC.

Now that you've mentioned Mississauga, the facade of the MCS tower does remind me of Chicago in MCC.
 
I find it fascinating that the interiors are so intact. You'd think that a building with as much ornamentation would have long been stripped of its mouldings and stone cladding.

A friend of mine jokes that East St. Louis is the only city he's ever been to where you can sell copper wire 24/7. I think that Detroit, Gary and Camden, NJ are also to stolen scrap metal as, say, Antwerp is to diamonds.
 
Video from a local documentary show in 1987 just before closure. There are some signs of decay (water damage) and some closed, abandoned sections, but the halls were still in okay shape. There were only Amtrak trains to Chicago by this time, and soon after station moved to a small, merely functional, station on Woodward in New Center.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sbtyUsnrY2I
 
The current Detroit station in New Center is a step up from an Amshak. It does have a few lopo attempts at architecture and is larger than most Amshaks and feels permanent. It does have a decent-sized waiting area, a full-time attendant and an atmosphere that is better than a school portable.

Buffalo-Depew, which replaced Buffalo Central Terminal - in rough shape, but now in good hands - is totally an Amshak. Or the station in Cleveland that replaced the intercity functions of the Terminal Tower complex, or St. Louis.
 
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^Ha ha. St. Louis opened a new intermodal station recently but it's jammed under a freeway. You can actually see it under construction to the right of the Amshack, where the light rail tracks curve under the freeway.

Intermodal terminals seem to be the template for new station construction in the US now. Like the one that recently opened in Milwaukee, they're a far cry from the opulence of the grand old terminals but they're light years ahead of the Amshacks of the 1970s.
 
Detroit's MC Station and other Amtrak Amshack station observations....

Wylie: Good pics inside the abandoned MC station in Detroit-I am glad to know that no one got hurt inside-in the pics the potential was definitely there.
Did you go in the morning when the chances of encounters with troublemakers was least likely? It is another link back to Detroit's better days...I note the first pic has all three North American flags visible-NAFTA I presume?

ShonTron,I42 and HD: I have not seen the current Detroit station-Can anyone post a map link?-but on the other hand I know Buffalo-Depew and St.Louis's Amtrak stations-I recall when Buffalo-Depew was opened to replace Central Terminal in late 1979-early 1980 and Amtrak resurrected the closed Exchange Street(former NYC) Station to serve Downtown Buffalo. The Depew suburban location was a moderate sized station building that was much more then an Amshack. One of the main reasons for that location was trains #48-#49-The Lake Shore Limited which Amtrak runs from NYC to Chicago.
The St.Louis station was indeed an Amshack-replacing the massive Union Terminal-visible in ShonTron's map link-visible with Market Street to the N and S.18th Street to the E just a few short blocks away.
LI MIKE
 
Amazing tour Wylie. It's fascinating such a place can exist in this state, abandoned for years in a once affluent US city.
 
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