The Old Bus Station

[msauve78]

Can anyone tell me about the old Greyhound bus station in Detroit? Specifically, from 1973 until 1986? the address, any unique details? I've seen photos, on this forum etc any details would be greatly appreciated.

[gazhekwe]

The one I remember since the 50s was over off Cadillac Square east of Woodward. Was there another one in between, over off W. Lafayette?

[Bham1982]

That's the same one, no? With the burger king and hobos? Where the Comerica Center garage now squats?

[Hypestyles]

the current Detroit station needs to be upgraded and expanded/relocated-- preferably merged with a major rail depot.

[IrishSpartan]

Can anyone tell me about the old Greyhound bus station in Detroit? Specifically, from 1973 until 1986? the address, any unique details? I've seen photos, on this forum etc any details would be greatly appreciated.

The Greyhound terminal you are referring to was located at 100 E. Congress and opened in 1958 after moving from Washington Blvd. and Grand River. They had a parking garage within the building for both employees and passengers. Greyhound did actually own this terminal as opposed to the Washington Blvd. location. For several years a motel was within the terminal. Also, the building contained a mosaic of Father Gabriel Richard.

Some details you typically read include the following: The bar inside the terminal [[Shannon's) was a dive. Some employees after their shift would have a beer or two across the street at Borg's. The Congress terminal wasn't in a bad location but it was close enough to the mini-Brush skid row where sometimes the terminal manager would have to call Detroit Police for removal of trouble makers.

[DetroitPlanner]

Greyhound took over the entire block between Larned [[S), Congress [[N), Bates [[W) and Randloph [[E). It was moved to make way for One Detroit [[Comerica) Building.

Besides having the Bus Station, there was a Burger King in it, a Motel [[named the Civic Center Motel), and public parking on the roof. I am almost ashamed to admit it, but I had banged on the windows of the motel more than once as a drunken teen. They were on the Larned side of the building. Personally, I had only used that station a few times, but remember it well as it was one of the largest I had seen on my travels.

Check out the pic at: http://www.detroityes.com/mb/showthr...rtown-Downtown
http://www.cardcow.com/380164/greyho...roit-michigan/
Here is the motel on the first floor: http://ratkov.com/the_detroit_encyclopedia/g
Hype, you may find some resistance from Greyhound on that. Their current location was selected because it has excellent on/off access to the freeways as it is an intercity bus. It would probably make more sense though to merge it with RTA busses though as Detroit is a bit of an Amtrak back-water due to its geography. Ideally though you are correct.

[msauve78]

Thanks for all the info everyone! I was told to ask here, that everyone was helpful. Very true :-)

[EastsideAl]

I like this postcard image of the station that the poster Proslack posted on the first threadlinked by DetroitPlanner above:



From my downtown memories and from the look of the cars on the street I believe this picture is from the early to mid '60s sometime. My grandmother took the bus to/from her home in Florida several times around that time, and I remember her buying us grandkids lunch in that Post House Cafeteria as a "splurge" to say goodbye to us before boarding a bus there for the long ride home. I took the bus from there myself down to Florida a couple of times to visit her, and a couple of times to go visit relatives up near Hamilton, in the early '70s.

Later, I spent a lot of time at that station while taking the bus back and forth to college in East Lansing. I also accompanied a friend on the bus back to his Marine Corps posting near San Diego from there. We had 8 days to get to California and made the most of the adventure, Last Detail style [[if any of you have ever seen that classic Jack Nicholson film of the '70s). Starting off with some early morning boozing in the bar across Congress [[ahhh, the days of 18-21 year old legal drinking in Michigan).

By that time in the late '70s the station was pretty decayed and there were always a fair number of men just sleeping in the waiting areas. I remember sitting there in the uncomfortable and sagging multi-colored 1950s style plastic "bucket" chairs, next to folks just snoring the day away. The Post House by then had long since been replaced by a pretty nasty Burger King. On the other hand, the infamous dive on the other side of the station lobby, the Shannon Bar, closed during those years.

I remember the long announcements of the many stops along the routes to points in all directions. And my ears still ring with the 1970s gas-crisis era ending to all of them: "Thanks for riding Greyhound, the energy saver!"

[gazhekwe]

Aaah, love the picture. That's the one I remember. I was a little kid in pigtails when I took the bus to Detroit to visit some people, and then back to the Soo. I learned from personal experience, don't waste a dime on the pay toilets, they are dirtier than the free ones.

[douglasm]

My iffy memory says there was a motel in the Detroit bus depot. Correct or not?

[EastsideAl]

Correct. The Civic Center Motel which took up the Larned side of the station building.

[stasu1213]

Correct. The Civic Center Motel which took up the Larned side of the station building.

D
ddot bus terminal was a block north in Cadillac Square. Does anyone have photos of it during the 70s

[EastsideAl]

D
ddot bus terminal was a block north in Cadillac Square. Does anyone have photos of it during the 70s

Interestingly, there's just such a picture posted at the top of the same thread where I found the '60s picture of the bus station [[the first thread linked by DetroitPlanner above).

This photo can be dated pretty precisely I think by the construction status of the Ren Cen in the background:

[Fulcanelli]

Ah...old memories.

[DetroitPlanner]

Interestingly, there's just such a picture posted at the top of the same thread where I found the '60s picture of the bus station [[the first thread linked by DetroitPlanner above).

This photo can be dated pretty precisely I think by the construction status of the Ren Cen in the background:

Cadillac Square functioned so much better back then.
Too bad it looks better now!

[EastsideAl]

Cadillac Square functioned so much better back then.
Too bad it looks better now!

The current Cadillac Square is an enormous improvement over those days. One of the few pieces of really good urban design downtown. That bus station was barren, ugly and nasty, and was exceeded only by the dark, dank horror of the one in Capitol Park.

[gazhekwe]

That area was a nightmare to walk across, no traffic signals, cars going every which way. It was a handy place to catch your bus though.

[stasu1213]

Cadillac Square functioned so much better back then.
Too bad it looks better now!

This particular bus structure was razed in 1985 to make room for an ugly dark brownish colored bus structure which was eventually razed fourteen years later

[DetroitPlanner]

The current Cadillac Square is an enormous improvement over those days. One of the few pieces of really good urban design downtown. That bus station was barren, ugly and nasty, and was exceeded only by the dark, dank horror of the one in Capitol Park.

I agree all that pavement was ugly. The whole area was awful to walk across or drive through.

However, a bus station needs to be close to the job center to be effective. The new location is not quite as convenient for those who work in the offices [[unless they work at the Fed Building or AT&T).

[EastsideAl]

I agree all that pavement was ugly. The whole area was awful to walk across or drive through.

However, a bus station needs to be close to the job center to be effective. The new location is not quite as convenient for those who work in the offices [[unless they work at the Fed Building or AT&T).

Of course, the whole problem could have been solved by building the originally proposed plan...

...but somehow that never happened.

[Richard]

Interestingly, there's just such a picture posted at the top of the same thread where I found the '60s picture of the bus station [[the first thread linked by DetroitPlanner above).

This photo can be dated pretty precisely I think by the construction status of the Ren Cen in the background:

Well ,at least they had some fine Corinthian leather to lounge about in near by.

[DetroitPlanner]

Of course, the whole problem could have been solved by building the originally proposed plan...

...but somehow that never happened.

Nothing that billions of dollars would not have been able to fix!

[EastsideAl]

Nothing that billions of dollars would not have been able to fix!

Ahhh, it would have only cost millions when approved by Detroit voters in a 1933 referendum, or when proposed again as part of the same 1945 Detroit transit plan that resulted in the construction of the Ford Freeway [[I-94).