Brush Street Station was a passenger

train station A train station, railway station, railroad station or depot is a railway facility where trains stop to load or unload passengers, freight or both. It generally consists of at least one platform, one track and a station building providing s ...

on the eastside of downtown

Detroit Detroit ( , ; , ) is the largest city in the U.S. state of Michigan. It is also the largest U.S. city on the United States–Canada border, and the seat of government of Wayne County. The City of Detroit had a population of 639,111 at t ...

Michigan Michigan () is a U.S. state, state in the Great Lakes region, Great Lakes region of the Upper Midwest, upper Midwestern United States. With a population of nearly 10.12 million and an area of nearly , Michigan is the List of U.S. states and ...

, located at the foot of Brush Street at its intersection with Atwater Street and bordered by the

Detroit River The Detroit River flows west and south for from Lake St. Clair to Lake Erie as a strait in the Great Lakes system. The river divides the metropolitan areas of Detroit, Michigan, and Windsor, Ontario—an area collectively referred to as Detro ...

to the south. Brush Street Station

History

The original station on this site was a

passenger ferry A ferry is a ship, watercraft or amphibious vehicle used to carry passengers, and sometimes vehicles and cargo, across a body of water. A passenger ferry with many stops, such as in Venice, Italy, is sometimes called a water bus or water taxi ...

terminal and train station opened in 1852 for the

Detroit and Pontiac Railroad The Detroit and Pontiac Railroad is a defunct railroad which operated in the state of Michigan during the mid-nineteenth century. It was the sixth railroad to receive a charter from Michigan, then a territory, and the second, after the Erie & Kala ...

. The station was acquired by the Detroit and Milwaukee Railway, and also served the Michigan Southern & Northern Indiana Railroad. The station was destroyed by fire on the evening of April 26, 1866, when someone with a lantern went to inspect a leaking barrel of

naphtha Naphtha ( or ) is a flammable liquid hydrocarbon mixture. Mixtures labelled ''naphtha'' have been produced from natural gas condensates, petroleum distillates, and the distillation of coal tar and peat. In different industries and regions ' ...

being loaded onto a

freight car A railroad car, railcar (American and Canadian English), railway wagon, railway carriage, railway truck, railwagon, railcarriage or railtruck (British English and UIC), also called a train car, train wagon, train carriage or train truck, is a ...

, setting off a chain reaction which also destroyed the ferry boat ''Windsor'' moored along the river, killing 17 passengers on the ferry and one person on a passenger train. The second station on the site was a two-story red brick structure opened in 1867 and designed by the architect Gordon W Lloyd, was constructed as a

union station A union station (also known as a union terminal, a joint station in Europe, and a joint-use station in Japan) is a railway station at which the tracks and facilities are shared by two or more separate railway companies, allowing passengers to ...

for the Detroit and Milwaukee, and the

Lake Shore and Michigan Southern Railway The Lake Shore and Michigan Southern Railway, established in 1833 and sometimes referred to as the Lake Shore, was a major part of the New York Central Railroad's Water Level Route from Buffalo, New York, to Chicago, Illinois, primarily along the ...

. The Detroit, Grand Haven and Milwaukee began serving the station in 1875. The Lake Shore and Michigan Southern left for

Michigan Central Station Michigan Central Station (also known as Michigan Central Depot or MCS) is the historic former main intercity passenger rail station in Detroit, Michigan. Built for the Michigan Central Railroad, it replaced the original depot in downtown Detroit ...

sometime during or after 1913. The

Grand Trunk Western Railroad The Grand Trunk Western Railroad Company is an American subsidiary of the Canadian National Railway operating in Michigan, Illinois, Indiana, and Ohio. Since a corporate restructuring in 1971, the railroad has been under CN's subsidiary holding ...

Detroit-

Port Huron Port Huron is a city in the U.S. state of Michigan and the county seat of St. Clair County. The population was 30,184 at the 2010 census. The city is adjacent to Port Huron Township but is administered separately. Located along the St. Clair ...

trains begin using the Brush Street Station in 1928. Until this time, they terminated at the MC Third Street Station, or the Woodward Avenue Station. The final Grand Trunk Western trains to use the station were the GTW's ''Mohawk'' to Pontiac, Durand, South Bend and Chicago's

Dearborn Station Dearborn Station (also referred to as Polk Street Depot) was, beginning in the late 1800s, one of six intercity train stations serving downtown Chicago, Illinois. It remained in operation until May 1, 1971. Built in 1883, it is located at ...

and unnamed train following the same route. In earlier years, the Grand Trunk's main service westward from Detroit involved trains due west to Pontiac, Durand, Owosso, Grand Rapids, and finally,

Muskegon Muskegon ( ') is a city in Michigan. It is the county seat of Muskegon County. Muskegon is known for fishing, sailing regattas, pleasure boating, and as a commercial and cruise ship port. It is a popular vacation destination because of the expans ...

. Continuing at the station, past the May 1, 1971 shift of American passenger trains to Amtrak, was the Canadian National Railway's/Grand Trunk's ''Tempo'' service from Detroit to Toronto via Windsor and London. The second structure was razed in 1973 to make way for construction of the

Renaissance Center The Renaissance Center (also known as the GM Renaissance Center and nicknamed the RenCen) is a group of seven connected skyscrapers in Downtown Detroit, Michigan, United States. The Renaissance Center complex is on the Detroit International Riv ...

. The last station on this site, Franklin Street Station, was built in 1974 approximately two blocks to the east along St. Antoine Street between Franklin and Atwater streets and used by the

SEMTA commuter rail SEMTA Commuter Rail, also known as the Silver Streak, was a commuter train operated by the Southeastern Michigan Transportation Authority (SEMTA) and the Grand Trunk Western Railroad between Detroit and Pontiac, Michigan. It began in 1974 when SEM ...

service between

Pontiac Pontiac may refer to: *Pontiac (automobile), a car brand *Pontiac (Ottawa leader) ( – 1769), a Native American war chief Places and jurisdictions Canada *Pontiac, Quebec, a municipality ** Apostolic Vicariate of Pontiac, now the Roman Catholic D ...

and downtown Detroit. This simple station consisted of only boarding platforms and a

park-and-ride A park and ride, also known as incentive parking or a commuter lot, is a parking lot with public transport connections that allows commuters and other people heading to city centres to leave their vehicles and transfer to a bus, rail system (rap ...

along Atwater Street. The commuter service was discontinued in 1983, and all train service soon thereafter. The site is now the surface parking lot and the rail line to it repurposed as the Dequindre Cut greenway.

References

Railway stations in Detroit

Former railway stations in Michigan Demolished buildings and structures in Detroit Demolished railway stations in the United States {{Detroit-struct-stub

History

See also

References