A PROUD HISTORY
The last train to leave Michigan Central 
Station would occur at 11:30 a.m. on 
Jan. 5, 1988. It was train No. 353 bound 
for Chicago. The decades of earlier 
activity often included notable events 
in Jewish Detroit history. When the 
sixth Lubavitcher Rebbe Yosef Yitzchak 
Schneersohn, a world-famous scholar, 
traveled to Detroit in 1930, a special route 
was arranged for his admirers to gather at 
Michigan Central Depot for his arrival on 

a Tuesday afternoon and lead him to the 
Emanuel Shul on Taylor Street. 
When Detroit leaders needed to 
travel to meet administration officials 
in Washington, D.C., to communicate 
urgent matters, they’d leave from 
Michigan Central, and not dissimilar 
from today’s train service from Detroit 
— they could be delayed by many hours. 
The delegation had to more creatively 
alert their esteemed hosts of the delay 
as it was two generations before mobile 

phones were created.
The space would be the headquarters 
for much industry — from a distillery 
to a produce company — that would 
receive shipments from the train 
station. This economic activity would 
empower generations of entrepreneurial 
investments in the city. 
The space would enable countless 
families to congregate as their family 
members went off to service in World 

continued on page 36

The former 
Michigan 
Central Station

NOVEMBER 10 • 2022 | 35

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