The town of Holly had two railroad lines and together they built this beautiful red and yellow brick depot. The Detroit and Milwaukee Railway and the Flint and Holly Railroad founded by Michigan Governor Henry Crapo carried passengers into Holly. Probably to the now famous Battle Ally, which you can read my post about it HERE. The two railroads built a wooden depot in 1864 which burned down in 1884. The current depot was constructed in 1886. It had two ticket windows, one for each railroad. The last passenger train left Holly and the brick depot in 1964.

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The town of Byron sits between Lansing and Fenton. It was the last stop on a stagecoach run from Detroit that ran west along what is now Rose Center road and Silver Lake road. The Village of Byron was incorporated in 1873 and the Toledo, Ann Arbor & Northern Michigan Railway was built through Byron following the pledge of a $15,001 bonus and the right of way in 1885. I wonder what the significance of the $1 is. It seems like an odd number. Anyway, I saw the old train depot in Byron. It must be privately owned and it looks like the owners love Vernors. It is rather obvious with the yellow and green paint job and the Vernors signs.

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A few years ago I was driving out of downtown Battle Creek and near the railroad tracks, I saw this magnificent Spanish church/castle-like building. I figured it must have been built by the railroad since It was near the tracks but there was no platform for the passengers but the twin towers looked like church steeples. I kinda forgot about the photo I took and now here we are a few years later and I finally found out it was the old Grand Trunk Railroad passenger depot. It was one of the largest depots in Michigan built in 1907 and it was used up until 1971. A grant from the Kellogg Foundation refurbished the old depot, and it is now being used by a nonprofit community group. It is definitely one of the more unique looking train depots I have seen, and I am glad it found a new purpose instead of being left to decay like so other depots around the state.

P.S. My wife gets annoyed with me because I don’t like to fly. I don’t mind the flying through the air at 300 mph part. It’s the security, boarding, luggage and everything else that comes with flying. I wish I could hop on a train and go on a trip. I know there is Amtrack which runs south of me, but by the time I drive to the station, I might as well drive to where the train is going to. I often wish there was a passenger train that went along I-75 that I could hop on and go to Detroit for the day and then go back home.

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According to early Genesee County histories, the first building in Gaines was a wood-frame railroad depot. It was replaced by this brick depot in 1881. The station closed when rail service ended in the 1950s. Listed in the National Register of Historic Places as part of the Genesee Avenue / Walker Street Historic District in 1983, it deteriorated over the years. In 1991 concerned citizens formed Gaines Station, Inc. to save the depot. Rehabilitation work lasted from 1992 to 1997. In 1998 the building reopened as a branch of the Genesee Public Library

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The area around Charlevoix became a popular summer resort starting in the late 1870s with the establishment of Bay View in 1877, the Charlevoix Summer Resort (now the Belvedere Club) in 1878, and the Chicago Summer Resort (now the Chicago Club) in 1880. In response to the increase in traffic, in the early 1890s the Chicago and West Michigan Railroad extended its line from Traverse City north to Petoskey.

The railroad waited until 1892, 12 years after the rail line went through to Petoskey to construct the train depot because they believed most visitors traveled to Charlevoix by boat. After the war, the Pere Marquette merged into the Chesapeake and Ohio Railway in 1947, and service to Charlevoix was gradually scaled back. Passenger train service to Charlevoix was completely discontinued in 1962. Rail freight runs continued until 1982, and the Chesapeake and Ohio Railway abandoned all its lines in northern Michigan. Shortly after the railroad tracks and the bridge over the canal leading into Lake Charlevoix was removed.

In the 1980s, the Charlevoix Yacht Club occupied the building. In 1992, Mr. & Mrs. Robert Pew donated the Charlevoix Railroad Station to the Charlevoix Historical Society. The Depot building was restored by the society and is now a venue for Historical Society events and programs.

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