Detroit's 'other' train station: The Union Depot

For many, when you say the words “Detroit” and “train station,” there’s only one building that comes to mind: Michigan Central Station. But that was not the only choo choo rodeo in town.

In fact, the Union Depot predated Michigan Central’s Corktown temple of transportation by two decades. And if Michigan Central was a temple, then the red sandstone and Richardsonian Romanesque stylings of the Fort Street Depot made it a church. Sometimes known as the “Fort Street Union Depot,” this building also served as a home of famed passenger trains like the Ambassador, Wabash Cannonball and the Red Arrow.

Today is the 55th anniversary of the closing of this stately station, so let’s take a look back at this lost landmark of the Motor City.

The first train steamed into the venerable Union Depot, located downtown at Third Avenue and Fort Street, on Jan. 21, 1893.

P…