Postcard from 1913 showing the new Michigan Central Station.
Reverse text states: “The new Michigan Central Station covers twenty-one acres and the total cost is $15,000,000.00.
There will be eleven tracks in the station that will accommodate 135 passenger coaches. It will have all conveniences, such as a complete Drug Store, with special facilities for the care of Invalids, and a Change Room, where travellers can, at nominal cost, obtain Shower Baths
and make a change of clothing.
Accommodations for passengers will not be outdone
by any Railroad Station in the World.”
Date: 1914-1915.
Source: Scan from the original work.
Author: Curt Teich & Co. Chicago., Publisher.
(Wikimedia Commons)
Michigan Central Railway Station Has Now Re-Opened.
Following Text and Illustrations: MICHIGAN CENTRAL
DETROIT, 3 June 2024 – Following an extensive six-year renovation by Ford Motor Company, Michigan Central Station will offer the public a first look at the interior restoration of its historic ground floor this week.
The Station officially welcomes the community back to share in its historic re-opening during Michigan Central OPEN from 6 June-16 June 2024.
Ford embarked on the preservation project after acquiring the abandoned train station in 2018 to be the centre-piece of Michigan Central, a thirty-acre technology and cultural hub in Detroit’s Corktown neighbourhood.
Michigan Central will bring Ford employees together with external partners, entrepreneurs, students, and even competitors, to co-create new products, services, and technologies that add value to a new generation of Ford customers and help build a better world.
While Ford’s investment is crucial to the company’s long-term planning, it also represents a commitment to the city of Detroit and its future, with the Station becoming a beacon of development and opportunity.
“Michigan Central means a great deal to us all. In many ways, this building tells the story of our City,” said Bill Ford, Executive Chairman of Ford. “This Station was our Ellis Island – a place where dreamers in search of new jobs and new opportunities first set foot in Detroit.
“Michigan Central means a great deal to us all. In many ways, this building tells the story of our City,” said Bill Ford, Executive Chairman of Ford. “This Station was our Ellis Island – a place where dreamers in search of new jobs and new opportunities first set foot in Detroit.
“But once the last train pulled out, it became a place where hope left. In 2018, I decided it was time to change that by re-imagining this Station as a place of possibility again.
“Over the past six years, Ford Motor Company and teams of forward thinkers, designers, community leaders, and more than 3,000 skilled tradespeople have worked to bring this landmark back to life.”
Ford and Michigan Central assembled a dream team to breathe new life into the stunning Beaux-Arts building – from its classical façade to its ornate interiors, including the Grand Hall with its fifty-four-foot Guastavino tile-vaulted ceiling, to the arcade, ticket lobby, and restaurant.
Ford and Michigan Central assembled a dream team to breathe new life into the stunning Beaux-Arts building – from its classical façade to its ornate interiors, including the Grand Hall with its fifty-four-foot Guastavino tile-vaulted ceiling, to the arcade, ticket lobby, and restaurant.
Since renovations began in late 2018, more than 1.7 million hours have been spent meticulously returning the Station to its original architectural grandeur, while retrofitting it with modern technology and infrastructure to support its next chapter.
Additional renovation facts:
1,300 square feet of terra cotta cornice was restored.
102,000 square feet of windows were replaced or restored.
4,200 new light fixtures were installed, including re-creations of three massive chandeliers in the Waiting Room and Grand Hall.
Restoring the building’s iconic Waiting Room and Grand Hall required the equivalent of 8.7 miles of grout used on the 29,000 Guastavino ceiling tiles alone. All but 1,300 of these tiles are original to the Station.
Three-and-a half million gallons of water were pumped from its basement, and 3,990 cubic yards of debris were hauled out of the building.
Eight million bricks make up the Station, which, if laid end to end, would stretch 1,000 miles.
1,300 square feet of terra cotta cornice was restored.
102,000 square feet of windows were replaced or restored.
4,200 new light fixtures were installed, including re-creations of three massive chandeliers in the Waiting Room and Grand Hall.
Restoring the building’s iconic Waiting Room and Grand Hall required the equivalent of 8.7 miles of grout used on the 29,000 Guastavino ceiling tiles alone. All but 1,300 of these tiles are original to the Station.
Three-and-a half million gallons of water were pumped from its basement, and 3,990 cubic yards of debris were hauled out of the building.
