Gratiot ruin [Gary Interurban Terminal]

**DetroitZack** · January-01-10, 06:30 PM

Do you guys know anything about this building off Gratiot? What it was used for and when it was built and closed.

**MikeM** · January-01-10, 06:32 PM

It was a passenger terminal for the interurban transit line to Port Huron.

**MikeM** · January-01-10, 07:04 PM

I posted a picture of it at the end of this thread:

http://www.detroityes.com/mb/showthread.php?t=409

**DetroitZack** · January-01-10, 07:06 PM

Thanks, Mike. I wonder when it went abandoned.

**Whitehouse** · January-01-10, 07:37 PM

Just before reading Mike's response my first thought was a transport link. I though a depot for streetcars. Was my first guess. Not far off the mark but not correct anyway.

The whole idea behind the building is nowadays in fashion again. There are numerous trasferpoints around the city of Amsterdam. Station Sloterdijk on the west has a massive parking. People take the Haarlem to Amsterdam line [[the oldest trainconnection in the Netherlands, build 1839) to reach city center. In the west the Amsterdam football [[yes football, I hate the term soccer) ArenA is also doubles a transferpoint [[outside matchdays).

Clever chaps back then, they should have copyrighted it.

**Lowell** · January-01-10, 10:43 PM

Thanks for the info MikeM. That linked thread and picture of the Gary Terminal had escaped me.

I shot the site in November 2006; so here is a little webisode.

Gary Terminal is part of a re-foresting 17 acre lot. My primary objective for visiting the site was to find the remains of a trailer park that once was there. [Does anybody know its name? I made a delivery in its fading days during my former life as a Sears delivery driver. I recall it being all Euro-American.] As befits so many of these sites, it had become a tire dump. Ever wonder what that tire disposal fee we are forced to pay for is used for?

Let's take a look inside. Fire had ravaged the interior so only exposed structure remains.

The full frontal outside view reveals that only the right wing [bus side] remains. I can't remember if I found any rails on the train side.

A tire strewn road leads into the trailer park and forest that lies behind. Fading outlines of lots and infrastructure remain, but the trailers have been removed.

**Lowell** · January-01-10, 10:51 PM

Except for this one...

The only other remains I found was this structure, which I speculate may have been a management facility.

I wondered if attempts to sell it had been abandoned, like this run-over sealed bid auction sign advertising the site. Or maybe a new owner removed it. Since it has considerable Gratiot frontage it would seem to have good value.

Finally, since it fits, I have copied over the picture that MikeM wrote about above.

**MikeM** · January-01-10, 11:00 PM

Long before the thread I linked to, there was another thread about the interurbans where someone had posted a picture of it from what looked like the 1950s or early 1960s. I can't remember when the interurban ceased operations, but the picture made me think it was used in some way [[bus depot?) for some years afterward. I have no idea when it was abandoned or who the final owner was.

**Lowell** · January-01-10, 11:23 PM

If this historical marker, beside the interurban power plant on Grand River just west of Orchard Lake Rd., is to be believed the DUR aka interurban came to an end in 1930. This was also the junction for the line leading up to Pontiac.

**WaCoTS** · January-01-10, 11:58 PM

be careful hanging around in those woods...there's an extremely territorial pack of about 4 or 5 stray dogs who call it their turf.

they like to slowly surround you using pack-hunting techniques. unless youre very observant and cool headed, you could end up in trouble, because while the others are more bark than bite, the alpha is deadly serious...

**MikeM** · January-02-10, 12:16 AM

I found that the Gary Terminal opened in March 1925. The interurban line to Port Huron, the Rapid Railway, ceased operations in January 1928. The city ran street cars up the line to Mt Clemens for a short while, but it looks as if the line was abandoned in 1930. As I look back at the DTE aerials to 1949, it looks as though it was never in use. Whatever picture I saw of it posted here must have been from earlier in the decade.

**1KielsonDrive** · January-02-10, 01:27 AM

MikeM and Lowell, you guys are absolutely amazing!!! Thanks for this thread and all of the information you provide. Historians of the First Class. = 1KD =

**reddog289** · January-02-10, 02:38 AM

To me this building look like some thing that resembles the buildings at the state fair. When did it lose one of it,s wings?

**Django** · January-02-10, 03:23 AM

Nice shots Lowell. I love that you left the tires and real estate sign in the shots.
I could be wrong but I never noticed that angle in your photography before. The bits and pieces that most dont bother to collect is what I love to see.

Whats the cross st to this ruin?

**mauser** · January-02-10, 10:59 AM

Detroitfunk post:
http://www.detroitfunk.com/?p=1683

**Eastside** · January-02-10, 11:12 AM

Great stuff....

I can only imagine what Detroit was like in its prime.

**bc_n_dtown** · January-02-10, 11:38 AM

Nice photos Lowell! Kinda eerie, but great nonetheless. Thanks for sharing.

**bc_n_dtown** · January-02-10, 11:50 AM

The Gary Terminal, just like the Oakwood Terminal on Fort Street just west of the Rouge River drawbridge, was built by the Detroit United Railway [[DUR) in 1925 to serve as an interurban/bus transfer station for its interurban routes. Plans were to also build another one along Woodward in Highland Park, but it was never built.

Passengers would transfer from the interurban cars to express buses to continue into downtown. The DUR decided to build these transfer stations for two reasons, 1.) because the increasing motor traffic congestion downtown delayed the service into and out of town, and 2.) because after the DSR took over the DUR's city street railway operation, the city of Detroit now charged the DUR a millage fee to operate within the city of Detroit, ironically along the same rails the DUR initially built.

As a result, the DUR decided to terminate its interurban routes at these stations and used its People's Motor Coach Co. [[a DUR subsidiary) to operate express buses from the transfer station into downtown. After the DUR went into receivership the DSR purchased a number of the PMC's buses, hired many of its drivers and took over the company's city express routes, effective July 1, 1926.

According to an article in Motor Coach Age magazine [[Jan-Feb 1991) the DSR rented the Gary Terminal [[and an adjacent 50-bus garage) from the DUR and used it to house buses for its Cadillac Express [[which originated at the Gary Terminal), Warren East, Harper, Schoenherr and Wilshire bus routes. The DSR leased the Gary Garage until November 14, 1930.

Retroit · January-02-10, 01:00 PM

That history is interesting. Sounds like the city of Detroit put the DUR out of business. And without the DUR feeding suburban passengers onto the DSR system, it is no wonder that they too eventually went out of business. And here I was led to believe it was all because of the "Great Streetcar Scandal".

**KENSINGTONY** · January-02-10, 01:06 PM

I believe the trailer park used to be called the "Airport Trailer Park".There used to be a sign with the name at the entrance gate on Gratiot.

**terryh** · January-03-10, 03:45 PM

Thanks for the info MikeM. I snapped some shots of the terminal and had wondered what it was....

**Catman** · January-12-10, 10:31 AM

Looking at the old picture with the rail cars beside it and the current Bing map of the building, it appears that the rails has been moved 100 or so feet in the direction of French Road since the building was built. But it looks as if the original rails would have gone through the cemetary across Gratiot if the original rails did exist. Or was the rails going up to the building a spur off the current existing rail-line?

**MikeM** · January-12-10, 11:07 AM

The rail line you're seeing is the Detroit Terminal RR - no relation to the interurban line. The terminal was served by a spur off of the Rapid Railway which ran along Gratiot [[where the northbound lanes are).

**East Detroit** · January-12-10, 04:22 PM

Originally Posted by KENSINGTONY

I believe the trailer park used to be called the "Airport Trailer Park".There used to be a sign with the name at the entrance gate on Gratiot.

I agree... it was right alongside the white cement fence.

**Catman** · January-13-10, 09:25 AM

From the Internets......

From 2004....."In the city of Detroit, Standard Federal Bank will benefit from brownfield tax capture valued at about $241,500. The revenue will be used to repare blighted property at the corner of Gratiot and Conner for construction of a new 5,000-square-foot bank branch. The property is part of a 17-acre parcel formerly known as the Airport Trailer Park. Site preparation activities will include removal of concrete debris from demolition of mobile homes and abatement of contaminates including arsenic and lead. The city of Detroit, through the city's brownfield development authority, will capture more than $152,145 in local property taxes to assist with site preparation."

More recently......."The Gratiot Trailer Park was an abandoned 16-acre trailer park in northeast Detroit [[Wayne County) MI, that devolved into a dumpsite. Together with three derelict buildings, 20 collapsed, overturned and burned trailers, a few vagrant cars and boats, deteriorated above-ground storage tanks, and illicitly dumped trash littered the grounds. The site was partially fenced, but access was not effectively restricted. Industrial properties, airport property, and a park adjoined the site. This information is from ATSDRâ€™s 1999 health consultation, conducted as part of a brownfields project.
ATSDR Conclusion: In 1999, ATSDR concluded that because of the physical hazards from the trash, trailers, tanks, and other debris, and the lack of effectively restricted access, this site was a Public Health Hazard [[Category 2). Also, some contaminants in soil were present at concentrations high enough to be of concern. The abandoned buildings definitely contained asbestos in amounts that required removal, and likely contained lead paint. Exposure to soil containing antimony, arsenic, benzo[[a)pyrene, copper, dibenz[[a,h)anthracene, lead, manganese, or PCBs was also possible.
In general, trespassers were considered unlikely to be exposed to doses that would cause adverse health effects. If, however, the site were developed for residential use, exposure to these contaminants might pose health risks.
U.S. EPA Update: The Gratiot Trailer Park site is not a federal site and is not included in the CERCLIS database.
The Michigan Department of Community Health Update: The area around Gratiot Trailer Park is being redeveloped commercially. A new bank is on the northeast corner of the site. See http://www.maps.live.com [cited 2008 August 21]. The rest of the site has yet to be addressed. MDEQ lists the site as "Airport Trailer Park, Former." Available at:
http://www.deq.state.mi.us/part201ss...t&pollutant=nu ll&source=null&submit=Submit [cited 2008 August 28].
IJC-critical Pollutants Identified within ATSDR Documents: During ATSDRâ€™s assessment of exposure-related issues, the IJC-critical pollutants PCBs, lead, and B[[a)P, were identified at this site."