The last train left Michigan Central Station 30 years ago and it has stood vacant ever since, a hulking embodiment of Detroit’s long decline from America’s manufacturing engine to its biggest municipal bankruptcy.
The 105-year-old building that once handled all of Detroit’s passenger rail traffic closed in 1988 due to a decline in ridership and took on a new life in the subsequent years as a must-see destination for urban explorers, the homeless and scavengers, who picked it clean of anything valuable.
After years of failed short-lived plans to repurpose the dated 500,000-square-foot, 18-story building, its future may be crystalizing: The Ford Motor Co. is moving into the surrounding neighborhood of Corktown and — according to Ford board member Edsel B. Ford II — is in talks to buy the old station.
Continue reading full article on CBS Detroit.
