Americans, particularly us Midwesterners, sure love a redemption story. And the Michigan Central Station is a good one.
As the passenger rail station for Detroit, it opened in 1913 and was a magnificent doorway into the industrial boomtown. But as Detroit peaked, so did rail travel, and eventually in 1988 service to the depot ceased and quickly fell into disuse and decline.
The 13-story structure in the Corktown neighborhood easily dominated the views of the surrounding areas, and as weather and scrappers decimated the structure, it became a quintessential example of "ruin porn" (or the more benign, "ruins photography").
By 2011, efforts were being made to at least slow the decay. But it wasn't till 2018 when the Ford Motor Company purchased it that the real restoration began. And now this week, it has been officially reopened as office space for Ford and Ford suppliers, with the potential to support the return of rail travel.
See? Every once in a while, I can focus on the positive!
Editor's note: John Auchter is a freelance political cartoonist. His views are his own and do not necessarily reflect those of Michigan Public, its management, or its license holder, the University of Michigan.
