Trips Places Foods Stories Newsletters

Take your next trip with Atlas Obscura!

Our small-group adventures are inspired by our Atlas of the world's most fascinating places, the stories behind them, and the people who bring them to life.

Visit Adventures
Trips Highlight
A view of Brașov’s Old Town.
Romania • 12 days, 11 nights
Legends of Romania: Castles, Ruins & Culinary Delights
from
Balkans road trip
Bosnia and Herzegovina • 9 days, 8 nights
Balkans Road Trip: Serbia, Croatia & Bosnia and Herzegovina
from
View all trips
Top Destinations
Latest Places
Most Popular Places Random Place Lists Itineraries
Add a Place
Download the App
Top Destinations
View All Destinations »

Countries

  • Australia
  • Canada
  • China
  • France
  • Germany
  • India
  • Italy
  • Japan

Cities

  • Amsterdam
  • Barcelona
  • Beijing
  • Berlin
  • Boston
  • Budapest
  • Chicago
  • London
  • Los Angeles
  • Mexico City
  • Montreal
  • Moscow
  • New Orleans
  • New York City
  • Paris
  • Philadelphia
  • Rome
  • San Francisco
  • Seattle
  • Stockholm
  • Tokyo
  • Toronto
  • Vienna
  • Washington, D.C.
Latest Places
View All Places »
The ‘Old Secretariat’ government building in New Delhi.
The 'Old Secretariat'
This set is inspired by a Roman arena.
Bozdağ Film Platolari
The Sea Water Distilling Plant.
Sea Water Distilling Plant
Contemplative paths.
Ayo Rock Formations
Latest Places to Eat & Drink
View All Places to Eat »
The pavlova comes crowned with jewel-like fruit.
Central Park Boathouse
The Village Tavern of Long Grove - exterior.
The Village Tavern
Hunter House Hamburgers
L’Escamoteur
Names on the bartop.
The Dive
Recent Stories
All Stories Video Podcast
Most Recent Stories
View All Stories »
Wortley built the wooden backpack she used while retracing Alexandra David-Néel’s journey from a chair she found on the street in London.
How Elise Wortley Climbed Mont Blanc in 1830s Women’s Attire
22 days ago
Simplicity is key: Just a slice of bread with a sprinkling of salt and pepper is the perfect accompaniment.
The Sweet Second Life of Creole Cream Cheese
22 days ago
My rendition of frog legs, popping mushroom curry, pad prik khing with salted egg yolk, and sweet khanom thuai.
Recreating My Favorite Meal From Thailand
22 days ago
Inside London’s Gorgeously Curated ‘Art Restaurants’
22 days ago

No search results found for
“”

Make sure words are spelled correctly.

Try searching for a travel destination.

Places near me Random place

Popular Destinations

  • Paris
  • London
  • New York
  • Berlin
  • Rome
  • Los Angeles
Trips Places Foods Stories Newsletters
Sign In Join
Places near me Random place
All the United States Michigan Detroit Michigan Central Station

Michigan Central Station

A Beaux-Arts triumph rises from decades of decay to become the heart of a new innovation district.

Detroit, Michigan

Added By
Annetta Black
Email
Been Here
Want to go
Added to list
  Anna Fox/Flickr
  Anna Fox/Flickr
  Rick Harris/Flickr
  Shane Gorski/Flickr
  Shane Gorski/Flickr
  Jerry Paffendorf/Flickr
  Shane Gorski/Flickr
  Jerry Paffendorf/Flickr
A view from Johnson street near Geodesic Dome House   danielr / Atlas Obscura User
Michigan Central Station building, Detroit, Michigan, 7/15/2021   Keri Kilgo / Atlas Obscura User
Michigan Central Station building, Detroit, Michigan, 7/15/2021   Keri Kilgo / Atlas Obscura User
Been Here
Want to go
Added to list

About

Possibly the most photographed abandoned building in Detroit, the massive Beaux-Arts train station known as Michigan Central Station (MCS) stood empty and neglected for 30 years.

Once a popular and bustling transit hub, the station whose abandoned shell would become a symbol of Detroit's economic problems was designed at the turn of the last century, part of the popular "City Beautiful" urban planning movement. Inspired by Chicago's 1894 World's Columbian Exposition and its romantic, neoclassical White City, the movement focused on beautifying urban spaces and erecting grand, monumental buildings and was particularly prevalent in Detroit, Chicago, and Washington, DC. The elegant new building was designed by the same team of architects responsible for New York's Grand Central Station — Warren & Wetmore of New York and Reed & Stem of St. Paul, Minnesota.

The massive new edifice was scheduled to dedicated on January 4, 1914, but on December 26, 1913, a fire broke out and rapidly gutted the city's previous station. The next day local newspapers recorded not only the new depot's spectacular interior, but also the marvel of its opening days early on "a half hour's notice." The huge building contained the tracks and station along with services like shops, lounges, and restaurants, and the tower held 500 offices for the railroad's business.

For the first 20 years of its life, MCS was a source of civic pride, and an elegant example of the growing city's potential. Hundreds of trains passed through the station each day at its peak before World War II. Beginning in the middle of the century, however, rail travel began to decline.

By the 1950s business was struggling, and in 1970 the railway company that owned the station declared bankruptcy. As train travel declined in general and automobile traffic expanded (especially in Motor City), fewer and fewer trains passed through. Efforts by Amtrak and the US government extended the building's life through the 1970s, but by the mid-1980s only a handful of trains came and left from the vast station.

On January 5, 1988, the last train left the station and the building began its second life as a symbol of the decline of Detroit, open to passersby and looters until 1995 when a fence was finally erected, a somewhat effective deterrent.

Despite its status on the National Register of Historic Places, the building's future was uncertain. Over the years, plans were put forward to renovate the structure into a casino, a trade and customs center, city police headquarters, a hotel, or an office building, but all failed without even making it past the planning stages. In April of 2009, the Detroit city council passed a motion ordering the building demolished. The protests of hundreds of local citizens and organizations like the Michigan Central Station Preservation Society — as well as the sheer cost — successfully staved off demolition, but left the once-grand structure in limbo with no concrete plans in place for its preservation.

In June of 2018, Ford Motor Co. announced it had purchased the building and planned to  transform it and surrounding properties into a mobility innovation district by 2022. After the investment of hundreds of millions of dollars and a six-year renovation to restore the structure to its former glory, Michigan Central Station reopened to the public on June 6, 2024. The reopening ceremony is meant to kick off a "phased reactivation" wherein restaurants, retailers, office tenants, and other partners will gradually refill the long-empty depot. Brought back to life by the efforts of a community that never fully gave up on it, Michigan Central Station looks set to be reborn as a symbol not of blight and decay, but of the tenacity and revitalization of the "Renaissance City." 

Related Tags

Ruins Railroads Abandoned

Know Before You Go

After June 16th, 2024, the first floor of the building is scheduled to be open for tours on Fridays and Saturdays through the summer. Expanded hours are set to be announced for the fall as the "phased reactivation" progresses. 

Community Contributors

Added By

Annetta Black

Edited By

Bendboy, rickymenzies, danielr, bpeck...

  • Bendboy
  • rickymenzies
  • danielr
  • bpeck
  • Allison
  • Keri Kilgo
  • apbreuhan

Published

October 25, 2010

Edit this listing

Make an Edit
Add Photos
Sources
  • https://www.freep.com/story/money/cars/ford/2024/06/03/michigan-central-station-concert-tours-photos-reopening/73954360007/
  • https://apnews.com/article/michigan-central-train-station-detroit-ford-mobility-49c55d18ee0b377fa54c70f389168639
  • https://historicdetroit.org/buildings/michigan-central-station
  • Buildings of Detroit: Michigan Central Station: http://buildingsofdetroit.com/places/mcs
  • Wikipedia: Michigan Central Station: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Michigan_Central_Station
  • Forgotten Detroit: Michigan Central Station: http://www.forgottendetroit.com/mcs/index.html
  • Detroiturbex: Michigan Central Station: http://detroiturbex.com/content/downtown/mcs/index.html
  • https://www.crainsdetroit.com/real-estate/ford-begins-first-phase-350-million-makeover-michigan-central-station
Michigan Central Station
2001 15th St.
Detroit, Michigan, 48216
United States
42.328731, -83.077496
Get Directions

Nearby Places

Geodesic Dome House

Detroit, Michigan

miles away

Monumental Kitty

Detroit, Michigan

miles away

Ernie Harwell Park

Detroit, Michigan

miles away

Explore the Destination Guide

Photo of Detroit

Detroit

Michigan

Places 47
Stories 18

Nearby Places

Geodesic Dome House

Detroit, Michigan

miles away

Monumental Kitty

Detroit, Michigan

miles away

Ernie Harwell Park

Detroit, Michigan

miles away

Explore the Destination Guide

Photo of Detroit

Detroit

Michigan

Places 47
Stories 18

Related Stories and Lists

Found: A Landlocked Message in a Bottle in a Detroit Train Station

trains

By Jessica Leigh Hester

The United States of Abandoned Places

List

By Mar Nwe Aye and Charlotte Chadwick

Related Places

  • Cabin made of old railroad ties.

    Carlin, Nevada

    Palisade

    Little is left of this formerly bustling railroad junction on the Transcontinental Railroad.

  • Inside the tunnel.

    Payson, Arizona

    Abandoned Mineral Belt Railroad Tunnel

    A partial tunnel blasted into a steep ridge is all that remains of a failed railway across Arizona.

  • Porter Creek Bridge Ruins.

    Bay Village, Ohio

    Porter Creek Bridge Ruins

    The overgrown remains of an old rail bridge rise above the valley like ancient Greek ruins.

  • One of the coke ovens.

    Gallitzin, Pennsylvania

    Glenn White Coke Ovens

    A hidden piece of Altoona's railroad history in a long-forgotten abandoned town.

  • Bankhead

    Bankhead, Alberta

    Bankhead Ghost Town

    The ruins of the "20-year town" lay out among the mountains of Alberta.

  • Part of abandoned historic downtown Cairo, Illinois.

    Cairo, Illinois

    Abandoned Town of Cairo, Illinois

    A once-booming Mississippi River town with a history of racial violence is now eerie and mostly abandoned.

  • Part of the Maine Shore Line Railroad

    Hancock, Maine

    Old Pond Railway Trail

    Walk the same tracks that once ferried Gilded Age aristocrats to their vacation destinations.

  • Jersey City, New Jersey

    Central Railroad of New Jersey Terminal

    Hidden in plain sight on the Hudson River is an abandoned train station where nature has taken over.

Aerial image of Vietnam, displaying the picturesque rice terraces, characterized by their layered, verdant fields.
Atlas Obscura Membership

Become an Atlas Obscura Member


Join our community of curious explorers.

Become a Member

Get Our Email Newsletter

Follow Us

Facebook YouTube TikTok Instagram Pinterest RSS Feed

Get the app

Download the App
Download on the Apple App Store Get it on Google Play
  • All Places
  • Latest Places
  • Most Popular
  • Places to Eat
  • Random
  • Nearby
  • Add a Place
  • Stories
  • Food & Drink
  • Itineraries
  • Lists
  • Video
  • Podcast
  • Newsletters
  • All Trips
  • Family Trip
  • Food & Drink
  • History & Culture
  • Wildlife & Nature
  • FAQ
  • Membership
  • Feedback & Ideas
  • Community Guidelines
  • Product Blog
  • Unique Gifts
  • Work With Us
  • About
  • FAQ
  • Advertise With Us
  • Advertising Guidelines
  • Privacy Policy
  • Cookie Policy
  • Terms of Use
Atlas Obscura

© 2025 Atlas Obscura. All Rights Reserved.