The Grand Canyon Of Architecture

Sunday we continued our "UrbanEx" series of explorations with a delve into the wonderful old Michigan Central Depot. Built in 1913 to replace a previous structure that had burned down, the new MCD was glorious: designed by the same architects that did Grand Central Station in NYC, the MCD has soaring arched ceilings and huge columned galleries. Really a sight to behold, even today in its decrepit state. When you stand in the main lobby you can't help feeling like you are in one of those old magnificent structures the Romans used to build. Really amazing.

Compared to the wide-open Packard plant, the MCD is pretty well locked down. There is a tall razor wire-topped fence all the way around the structure and at first glance it looks like there are no chinks in the armor. But if you go around the side and under the rail bridges, you find a large section of missing wall down there, and further along a small door open way in the rear.

This door was our way in Sunday. Just inside the door is a huge open area about the size of a couple football fields, very dark and filled with holes, jagged metal scraps, and an old burned out car. This is the basement underneath the railroad tracks. These tracks are at least partially in use because an incredibly loud freight train passed over our heads at one point.

Traversing to the far side of the dark field leads to a bright exit into a courtyard. The MCD main building was now in sight, looming up in front of us.
We ran across the open field to keep from being seen, and ended up on the lower level of the main building.

We found some amazing things inside this old beauty. The sub basement is basically a dark frozen lake, a room that I can say without hesitation was the creepiest I have ever been in. Drips of water and creaking can be heard in the otherwise silent chamber, and far away across the "lake" was a small lit area that cast the place in inky silhouette. It was very dark. I set up the camera and did a 30 second exposure and the picture was still jet black.

Right before we encountered the galleries leading to the ticket counters and lobby, we came upon a series of crushed elevators filled with junk...

The main lobby is just spectacular. Words cannot describe it, and even wide angle pictures don't do it justice. Like the Grand Canyon of architecture.


And huge columns are everywhere. We saw the old ticket counters, now ravaged and lonely...

...and the giant room in the rear that connected up with the tracks and served as a waiting room...

The angled chamber that led to the streetcars in which most passengers arrived in the early days before everyone had an automobile.

And then we scaled to the very top of the building, past all the identical floors once used for offices...


...and up a long series of staircases that have startlingly had most of their support beams removed...
...and finally up the last rickety stairway that was missing a few key steps, on up to the roof...

Up on the roof we saw a great panoramic view of the city and parts of Windsor too.






It was a great adventure. The MCD is very different from the Packard plant. Less industrial, more contained, and in much better shape. I'm glad we finally got to tread the tile floors of this old beauty.