Michigan Central Station, Detroit, Michigan

Photo by Urbanarcheology via Wikimedia Commons

Perhaps the most notorious vacant structure in Detroit is Michigan Central Station. Opened in 1913, the station was home to Detroit's passenger rail services, remaining in operation until Amtrak left the aging facility at the beginning 1988. Passenger service was moved to a new station.

In April of 2009, the Detroit City Council voted to raze the building immediately, but were sued by a Detroit resident who cited the National Historic Preservation Act of 1966. To date, no plans have been made for the building, which continues to deteriorate.

Click here to see more photos of Michigan Central Station.

The building has also appeared in many movies, including Transfomers, The Island, and Four Brothers. This being such an incredible location, and there being so many wonderful photos of this place out there, this is likely not the last post to be made about this beautiful abandoned train station!

Starlight Lanes, Detroit, Michigan

DetroitFunk, one of my favorite places to look at decaying Detroit, has a haunting and beautiful set of photos depicting Starlight Lanes, an abandoned bowling alley. It is located in Royal Oak Township, just across 8 Mile from north central Detroit.

Sadly, this is just another building in Detroit. Entire blocks, even entire neighborhoods, lay in this state of repair. I recently read an article about the state of Detroit and its plague of vacancies. I don't want to throw out any numbers because I don't recall exactly (I will have to look them up again for another post), but all of the statistics were pretty staggering.

Click here to see the complete set of photos.

Eddystone Hotel, Detroit, Michigan

Photo by Andrew Jameson via Wikimedia Commons

Detroit's Eddystone Hotel was built in 1924. Like so many of the city's beautiful structures of the period, it stands nearly skeletal with gaping windows and has fallen into a state of disrepair.

In 2005, Michigan governor Jennifer Granholm announced a development firm had purchased the building and planned to renovate it into condominiums with retail spaces on the ground level. However, nearly five years later no such work has commenced, likely due to the collapse of Michigan's economy.

The building was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 2006. Despite this, the site is rumored to be a possible location for a proposed hockey area, as NHL team the Detroit Red Wings look to replace their aging venue.

The website Stoned Planet has a nice gallery of photos of the Eddystone taken fairly recently. Click here to see the complete set of photos.

Photo by urbantiki via MorgueFile.com

Holy Family Orphanage, Marquette, Michigan

Marquette, Michigan's Holy Family Orphanage is an imposing structure. It served as an orphanage from 1915 to 1965 and was completely abandoned in 1985. The building is said to be haunted and has been the subject of numerous paranormal investigations.

There are some wonderful photos of both the exterior and interior of the orphanage at BR Nation.

General Chemical Factory, Manistee, Michigan

As part of an effort to clean up the shores of Manistee Lake, this old factory began to undergo demolition in the summer of 2007. It had most recently been home to General Chemical, though it was best known to locals as Hardy Salt and later as Akzo Salt.

Hazmat crews worked much of the summer dismantling the massive structure. In September of 2007, an accident with a cutting torch caused a fire to rip through what remained of the building.

Click here to see a slideshow with photos of the factory in various stages of deconstruction as well as photos of the fire. Photos taken in August and September of 2007.


This 1995 newspaper photo is from an article announcing the closing of the Manistee Akzo salt plant.

According to a report by the University of Missouri at St. Louis, "Thomas Walter Hardy, a salesman for Morton Salt, began his own salt packing and distribution company in 1914. Hardy's business grew rapidly and incorporated as the Hardy Salt Company in 1916. The company was located at 22nd and Dock Street in St. Louis. While vacationing near Lake Michigan in 1930, Hardy learned of the Robson Leather Company, an abandoned tannery with an adjoining salt well located in Manistee, Michigan. Hardy bought the tannery and built the Manistee Salt Works, a Hardy Salt Company subsidiary and manufacturer of all its salt."

Hardy sold the salt company in 1985. From this point on, the salt manufacturing plant changed hands several times before being repurposed. The site would later be occupied by Ambar Chemical, which was subsequently bought out by General Chemical.

The area is currently used by Seng's Crane and Excavating to store their aggregate rock.

Abandoned Furniture on Radio Tower Hill, Manistee, Michigan

Atop a hill overlooking the city, tucked away where one might never notice, someone went through the trouble of gathering a bunch of old furniture. We happened upon it quite by accident, and I was delighted at the find.

Click here to see the complete set of photos.

It's been a while since this visit, and posting these photos has made me want to revisit the site in the spring. I promise I will post those photos as well! These photos were taken June 7, 2008.