savaster

Memories 1: Michigan Central Station

Added 2019-07-07 16:59:29 +0000 UTC

It has been a whole since Michigan Central Station has had any railroad tracks. The last Amtrak freight train pulled out of there in January 1988, and since then the mammoth structure has remained fenced and boarded, with its spacious concourse overtaken by gravel and weeds. The dream of early city planners that nearby Michigan Avenue would be the artery and vein from the depot to the downtown, a cluster of grey skyscrapers seen in a fair distance, never came to be, as the city center itself was fighting its own decline and cared little about this small node engulfed in an expanding urban decay. Now with its purpose long gone, the ruin of the station looked like a massively disproportionate behemoth, set between the River bank and the rudimentary neighborhood of Corktown.

Could a city have memories? An implicit question, but if that were ever true, the answer would be sought in the phantom clatter and hustle of the incoming and outgoing passengers, in their soft hats and fur coats, echoing through the station's great waiting rooms, galleries, and boarding gates, still beckoning to be heard.