  7even Member Username: 7even Post Number: 142 Registered: 03-2006 |
I just thought I should share this story. Tonight at about six, two friends and I where coming back from a delicious meal in Mexican Town. We went past the train station and saw four white teenage girls taking pictures of the train station and a new van next to them. I said to my friend who was driving, "I bet a dad brought his daughters from the burbs." Sure enough we went past the van and some ~48 year old dad was eyeing us. His face was priceless. | ||
Tetsua Member Username: Tetsua Post Number: 1331 Registered: 01-2004 |
I always thought it should be make this into a haunted house / building for Halloween. Kinda like "Eastern State Peniteniary" in Pennsylvania. | ||
Dinnc Member Username: Dinnc Post Number: 10 Registered: 08-2007 |
I think whoever owns that building could make a killing doing tours and making it into a small museum. Leave it like it is though. Show the building in its glory years through pictures or a video and then show people what it looks like today. Maybe, just maybe, enough people will start caring and actually do something with the building. | ||
Catman_dude Member Username: Catman_dude Post Number: 224 Registered: 03-2006 |
The ruins of Detroit holds such a morbid fascination for some. For me, having grown up in Detroit suburbs then moving out in the very early 1980s, to see how Detroit has fallen so much further than the sad condition when I left, it's a fascinating tragic story. Of course, I say that as one who is not much affected by it. But when I visit some of the ruins, at times I get overcome with grief. I don't know why. | ||
Putnam Member Username: Putnam Post Number: 104 Registered: 05-2005 |
quote: Manny Maroun There's been an extraordinary amount of tourist activity around it lately. I wonder why. The MCS is an international border crossing (train tunnels to Windsor terminate on the property.) Considering the fact that Mr. Maroun monopolizes border transit, this is a convenient asset for him to have off the market. I haven't seen this angle played in the media yet. Have I missed it? | ||
Oldoak Member Username: Oldoak Post Number: 14 Registered: 09-2007 |
The train station is indeed well known to many outside of Detroit. While spelunking at another site with a good sized group of people, there was a mishap and when the EMS came they told me about yet another person who had been exploring the train station inside and alone who had an accident. It took them nine hours to find that person! Adventure is one thing – danger is another. When I drove with out-of-towners behind the train station we where “pulled over” by border patrol – Homestead Security. It was not a joke. That is when I found out about the tunnel to Canada, which ends at the train station. The place is under heavy security even though it does not appear to be. The Homestead Security surmised right away that we were no threat and shared with us how many suburbanites like to climb the OUTSIDE of the station and reach the top. It’s a good thing they didn’t question my guests, one of whom was from Germany with a thick accent. We did not return to find the gap under the fence to explore the interior. | ||
Tetsua Member Username: Tetsua Post Number: 1333 Registered: 01-2004 |
Tell me the MCD wouldn't make a sweet ass haunted house, if done like this. http://www.easternstate.org/ (Message edited by tetsua on September 29, 2007) | ||
Gistok Member Username: Gistok Post Number: 5427 Registered: 08-2004 |
Too bad that it's not the American way to have "ruins" like they do in Europe. They have places like the Roman Amphitheatre and Forum, Heidelberg Castle, the Aquaducts of Segovia and Nimes, old Coventry Cathedral (not to mention all of the ruined abbeys in England), and many other ruins. Although I disagreed with Jose Camille Vargara's idea of downtown being an American Acropolis, I do think that the train station would make for an interesting ruin, since it mimics the grandeur of a Roman style. | ||
Border5150 Member Username: Border5150 Post Number: 183 Registered: 03-2004 |
Of course its a tourist attraction! Look at the movies that have been shot there lately - Transformers and The Island to name two. 7even, instead of looking down your nose at the white suburbanites doing the tourist thing, you should be grateful that they're even coming into the city. People like you bitch about the "white flight" (which today is simply "flight" as non-white people are leaving as well)from Detroit; and then you have the audacity to mock them for venturing to the city. Detroit needs every single visitor, every single tourist, every single dollar it can muster! | ||
Bob_cosgrove Member Username: Bob_cosgrove Post Number: 578 Registered: 03-2005 |
Contrary to the Metro Times calling him "Manny," the name of the owner of the Michgan Central Depot and the Ambassador Bridge Company is Manuel "Matty" Maroun." Bob Cosgrove | ||
Lowell Board Administrator Username: Lowell Post Number: 4183 Registered: 10-2003 |
Whenever I pass by the MCS it not uncommon to see visitors, often with cameras. It is not hard to understand why. It is simply the most jaw-dropping site of the fabulous ruins of Detroit - the monarch of the ruins. Folks seeing it for the first time fall silent. Thoughts bordering on disbelief flood through their minds. Its immensity, mass, elegance, significance, even its faint moldy smell, combine to create a moving experience. Being a standalone, walkaround structure gives it added prominence and definition. This site is Roman Coliseum size, bigger than the great amphitheaters of the ancient world, the baths of Caracella or the Parthenon of Athens... It is awesome in the truest meaning of that word. Hopefully the curious 'suburban' girls, dad too, [if that is who they really were] took something positive away from that experience. | ||
Bob_cosgrove Member Username: Bob_cosgrove Post Number: 579 Registered: 03-2005 |
The architects of Michigan Central Depot - Warren & Wetmore of New York City and Reed & Stem of Minneapolis are the same consortium who designed Grand Central Terminal in New York City, considered a high point in 20th Century railroad station design. Bob Cosgrove | ||
Gistok Member Username: Gistok Post Number: 5430 Registered: 08-2004 |
Lowell, sadly... like the loss of Detroit's 3rd largest movie palace, the Hollywood Theatre (3,434 seats) over near 18th street & Fort back in 1963, and the eventual loss of the Lee Plaza... the mighty goliath of MCS suffers from being in a way out of the way location. I've always lamented that it wasn't nearer downtown/midtown. I always thought it would have made a nice southern anchor to Cass Park and the great buildings around it. | ||
Traxus Member Username: Traxus Post Number: 107 Registered: 02-2006 |
I've noticed that in the past month, they've sealed off the 'main' entrance that most people would intrude through. They also put lights under the bridge, the place obviously became too popular. Surely for the better though, the stairs are in rough shape (as with the rest of the building). | ||
Oakmangirl Member Username: Oakmangirl Post Number: 446 Registered: 08-2007 |
I was under the impression that structurally the MCS was too far gone; doesn't this preclude opening it up to people? I think the monolith serves as an apt metaphor for our city; why couldn't we start using our ruins as beautiful welcoming gateways to the city? Much like Paris has Portes to the city and key architectural gems at radial points. Only we're more like the bleak cityscape from the Terry Gilliam film "Brazil"; I envision the MCS with a dangling lit up (partially) D_troi_ sign. Any good landmark ruins we could use on the East Side? | ||
Susanarosa Member Username: Susanarosa Post Number: 1712 Registered: 11-2003 |
The only problem with that Tetsua, is that Eastern State is in far better shape than the MCS appears to be. And well, Eastern State and its history is already creepy enough so making it into a haunted house actually fits. The MCS doesn't really have that history of being the first Penitentiary, Al Capone and the freaky death row and solitude confinement wings. | ||
Trawka Member Username: Trawka Post Number: 1 Registered: 08-2007 |
I'm a huge MCS buff. I love it's architecture and history. At night the main level feels and looks like youre exploring a beautiful ancient tomb. I've never been to any place like it. Structually, the station isnt that bad, but i guess im no expert. There are a few questionable staircases near the top on the way to the roof but taggers and graff artists have marked bad steps with an "x". You just need to be careful. Its a long hike but the view of the city is breathtaking. I did notice recently that the usual holes in the fence were "sealed off" with new fencing, but not very effectively. The building will always have visitors; from younger kids (ive ran into groups of 12yr olds) looking for that "haunted-house" initiation ritual to photographers and amateur urban historians like myself. I do see why they would want the visitors out, bad things could happen if youre not careful. But the amazing architecture, and the buildings rich history at least deserve some guided tours. Also, i was wondering if anyone could verify or have more info on a rumor i heard: there is a sealed entrance to the salt mines in the MCS tunnels? | ||
Elsuperbob Member Username: Elsuperbob Post Number: 83 Registered: 03-2007 |
I was surprised that the mess inside was not that bad. Not that much debris, really. I was expecting worse I guess. I guess the outside suggests worse. I agree with Border. It sounds like you're mocking them. I think most suburban parents wouldn't even bring their children to the city let alone the station. So I would say kudos to him for that at least. Lowell, actually the Baths of Caracalla dwarf MCS and the Colosseum. It's easiest to see from GoogleEarth. You could probably put 2 MCSs inside only the baths building of the Baths of Caracalla and that is less than half of the entire complex. And that's smaller than the Baths of Diocletian. Just the exedra of those baths could nearly fit MCS and 2 of the surviving rooms are about a quarter mile apart. http://maps.google.com/?ie=UTF 8&ll=42.328474,-83.077455&spn= 0.004204,0.009892&t=k&z=17&om= 1 http://maps.google.com/maps?f= q&hl=en&geocode=&q=Rome&ie=UTF 8&ll=41.87906,12.493386&spn=0. 004234,0.009892&t=k&z=17&om=1 http://maps.google.com/maps?f= q&hl=en&geocode=&q=Rome&ie=UTF 8&ll=41.903722,12.498246&spn=0 .004232,0.009892&t=h&z=17&om=1 Everything from the exedra to Via Volturno and Via 10 Settembre to Piazza dei Cinquecento are built on the ruins of the Baths of Diocletian with the remains of the frigidarium right off the exedra. So I was actually surprised how small the halls and tower floors of MCS are. It just looks so big because everything around it is on such a small scale. I don't even think it has the same scale as Grand Central. | ||
Burnsie Member Username: Burnsie Post Number: 1161 Registered: 11-2003 |
Putnam wrote, "...train tunnels to Windsor terminate on the property." Maroun doesn't have anything to do with the railroad tracks and tunnels; they are owned and used by Canadian Pacific Railway. In fact, though the idea seems to have fizzled, there was a proposal by CP and the Canadian government to build a new RR tunnel and convert the existing tunnels to truck use-- which certainly would have competed with Maroun's Ambassador Bridge. | ||
Gistok Member Username: Gistok Post Number: 5436 Registered: 08-2004 |
I wonder if inside debris was cleaned up for all the movies that have been filmed inside it. | ||
Jt1 Member Username: Jt1 Post Number: 10282 Registered: 10-2003 |
quote: I certainly hope that you guys were charged for the costs that the city services incurred due to your illegal activity. I also hope that a senior citizen or child that needed EMS didn't have to wait because they were helping people that knowingly break the law. Like all other criminals 'urban explorers' should be last on EMS priorities list. | ||
Rhymeswithrawk Member Username: Rhymeswithrawk Post Number: 912 Registered: 11-2005 |
Contrary to the Metro Times calling him "Manny," the name of the owner of the Michgan Central Depot and the Ambassador Bridge Company is Manuel "Matty" Maroun." Bob's right. He's Matty, though I call him Douche. Matty Moron. If you're at all interested in seeing some photos of the MCS in its glory days, I made a video at Animoto for our Web site. I think I posted the link to it here. If I didn't, it exists in two versions for your listening pleasure: MC5 (Detroit mix): http://animoto.com/play/563c67 e14a8bc88285631c9f31ebd206 Yardbirds (Choo-Choo mix): http://animoto.com/play/cf951d f1ee6c2b87581fff88da8618fe |
