DURAND, MI
200 South Railroad St., Durand, MI 48429
Durand, MI; June, 2000
| Durand is a very small town about 50 miles northwest
of Detroit. In 1903 the Grand Trunk Railroad built a very large chateau revival
style depot there. Designed by the Detroit architectural firm of Spier and
Rohns, the station had a waiting room, restaurant, baggage/express room,
and upstairs were railroad offices. The building is brown brick over a cut
stone foundation. The roof was slate. In place of the rounded waiting room,
used in other Spier and Rohns designs, Durand got a rounded porch over the
outdoor waiting area.
Ann Arbor railroad ran along this,
the north side.
It was an unusually large depot for such a small town.
At the time the depot was built, there were more than 40 passenger trains
a day stopping there. Trains arrived from seven different directions, and
thousands of passengers changed trains in Durand every day.
The first railroad through this area arrived in about 1855.
It was being built from Detroit toward the shores of Lake Michigan at Grand
Haven. This line was completed in 1858. In 1877 another railroad was built
from Flint to Lansing. By 1880, it was part of the Grand Trunk's main line
to Chicago. The town of Durand grew up at this crossing.
In 1890 a line from Saginaw/Bay City was built into Durand.
These three lines all became part of the Grand Trunk Railroad. Also during
the 1880's, the Ann Arbor Railroad built through Durand, on its way to
northwest Michigan. |
Map from a Grand Trunk timetable
Turretted west end, facing the CN (Grand Trunk) mainline.
Detroit-Grand Rapids Tracks along the south side.
The depot was seriously damaged in a fire soon after it
was finished. It was rebuilt in 1905, but with fewer dormers and a red tile
roof. In 1965, the railroad removed all but one dormer and replaced the roof
with shingles.
The railroad abandoned the building in 1974, and likely
had its demolition planned. A "save the depot" movement led the town to acquire
the depot in 1979. By then the building was quite a mess. A community effort
to clean-up and restore the depot reached its goal when the Amtrak waiting
room was rededicated in 1981.
In 1985 responsibility for maintaining and developing the
station was assumed by Durand Union Station, Inc. Under their control,
a State Railroad History Museum was established in the former restaurant
area, and the station got a big Federal ISTEA grant, which allowed for replacing
the long lost dormers and reroofing the entire building with red clay tiles.
Other work included basement repairs and installing an elevator, to allow
for development of the second floor.
Durand's depot has survived fire, abandonment and neglect
to become one of Michigan's more successful large depot restorations. And
it is still a stop for passenger trains. After 100 years, the waiting
room is still a waiting room, and one can still buy a ticket to
Durand.
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