This Passenger Train Station in MI is now an Ice Cream Parlor

Michigan Central Railroad Charlotte Depot, Charlotte Michigan

Date added: October 11, 2024

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The Michigan Central depot served passengers in Charlotte from its construction in 1902 until it closed in about 1948. The building is a well-preserved example of an early twentieth-century small-town railroad station in Michigan, and of the railroad work of Spier and Rohns, architects of numerous depots on the Michigan Central and other Michigan railroads.

In 1840 the county seat of Eaton County was moved from Bellevue to the more centrally located settlement of Charlotte, providing an important stimulus for growth in the small farming community. Charlotte was incorporated as a village in 1863 and, in 1868, the first railroad line was constructed through Charlotte by the Grand River Valley Railroad. Incorporated in 1846, the Grand River Valley Railroad (GRVRR) did not begin building until 1862 when it began work on its Jackson to Grand Rapids route. On February 5^th, 1864, the Michigan state legislature allowed Eaton County to lend the GRVRR money for the construction of the railroad passing through Eaton County. The GRVRR began laying track, but needed an established railroad company to guarantee its bonds. The Michigan Central Railroad agreed to guarantee the bonds and complete the line to Grand Rapids. Work progressed rapidly after this agreement with track reaching Onondaga in the fall of 1867 and Charlotte in October 1868. The GRVRR completed its first depot in Charlotte by September 1868 (Charlotte Republican, September 9^th, 1868). In 1870 the Michigan Central obtained a lease for the corporate life of the GRVRR and the GRVRR's Jackson to Grand Rapids route became part of the Michigan Central system.

In February 1870, Charlotte received a second railroad line when the Peninsular Railroad constructed track through Charlotte on its Battle Creek to Lansing route. In an unusually amicable agreement, the two railroads constructed a junction in their track north of the GRVRR depot to allow the Peninsular Railroad to use the water tank and turn table of the GRVRR and to transfer materials from one line to the other (Charlotte Republican, February 11^th, 1870). The Peninsular Railroad constructed a depot by May of 1870 (Charlotte Republican, May 6^th, 1870). On the 1873 Atlas of Eaton County, the depot of the Peninsular Railroad appears south and west of the GRVRR depot between Lovett and Seminary Streets. In 1878 the Peninsular Railroad merged with the Chicago and Lake Huron Railroad to form a line between Chicago and Port Huron. The Chicago and Lake Huron became part of the Chicago and Grand Trunk Company in 1880.

The early depot constructed by the GRVRR probably could not accommodate both the passenger and freight traffic moving through Charlotte on the Michigan Central system by the beginning of the twentieth century. However, the reason for its replacement is not definitely known. The noted Detroit firm of Spier and Rohns received the commission for Charlotte's new depot. This firm designed nearly all of the principal depots on the Michigan Central and Grand Trunk Railroad lines between 1884 and 1913 as part of the railroad's effort to update their depots. N. J. Rogers of Detroit was the contractor for the construction of the depot. The old Michigan Central depot continued in use for a period of time as a freight depot, allowing the new depot to focus upon passenger accommodations and comfort. "Charlotte has waited long and anxiously for this needed structure and has some compensation in the fact that her new depot is very commodious, substantial and beautiful," the July 23^rd, 1902, Charlotte Tribune stated on the opening of the new depot. The Michigan Central depot was one of the more modern buildings of its time in Charlotte, a status symbol of a growing, prosperous community. "Finer than silk is a proper expression when entering the new M.C. depot in this city," according to the Charlotte Tribune. "Not a convenience is wanting."

According to a July 19^th, 1912, daily telegraph report found in the station, nineteen trains came through the Charlotte depot daily. Their stops included Grand Rapids, Eaton Rapids, Hastings, Jackson, and smaller towns such as Nashville, Vermontville, and Dutton.

The decline of passenger rail travel in Michigan led to the closing of the Michigan Central depot around 1948. The Miller family of Eaton Rapids then purchased the building and turned it into a restaurant and ice cream parlor featuring the family's Miller brand of ice cream. The building has continued in operation as a restaurant under several owners up to the present.

While the basic form and division of interior space for small town depots changed little between the 1890s and the 1920s, the exterior aspect of the depot building underwent a substantial evolution between 1890 and 1900. Earlier depots, such as the Michigan Central's Dexter depot designed by Frederick Spier and constructed in 1886-87, were more often than not of frame construction. Most small city stations built after the 1880s, however, were more substantial buildings with masonry walls and, often tile roofs.

The exteriors of the masonry-wall depots built before the mid-1890s retain Victorian decorative elements such as arched windows and brickwork accented with stone trim. The Charlotte Michigan Central Depot is an early example of a style that became prominent beginning in the 1890s when a stripped-down, clean-cut finish became the norm. The Charlotte depot, like other Michigan Central depots in Dowagiac (1901-2) and Mason (1902), displays this simple aesthetic. Similar examples built by other railroads include the Grosse Isle depot of the Canada Southern (1904) and the Belding depot of the Pere Marquette (1920).

The Charlotte Michigan Central Railroad Depot stands as an important representative in Charlotte of the period when railroads dominated travel and when Charlotte was part of the east-west passenger and freight transportation networks of two different railroad companies. The depot typifies stations built by Michigan's railroads during the early twentieth century and in particular is an example of the work of Spier and Rohns who were responsible for a generation of depots on the Michigan Central Railroad.

Building Description

Charlotte's Michigan Central Railroad Depot is a long and narrow one-story building with light reddish-brown brick walls and multiple hipped roofs. The railroad completed the depot in July 1902. The depot stands at the junction of North Cochran Avenue and the railroad tracks in a semi-industrial area on the northern edge of Charlotte. The street side of the building faces southwest; the track side faces northeast. Just northwest of the depot is the junction of the Grand Trunk Railroad and Pennsylvania Central Railroad tracks. The station is rectangular in shape with the exception of a rectangular extension with a large, three-sided bay on the street side of the building and the three-sided apsidal termination of the southeastern end of the station. Three-sided bay windows are also located on the track facade and on the northwest facade of the station. The ground dimensions of the building are approximately 108.5 feet by 26 feet. The foundation is of concrete block and the window lintels are of limestone.

The multiple-hipped roofs of the Charlotte Michigan Central Depot are covered by red clay tile and extend out over the building into widely overhanging eaves. A single chimney of buff brick with reddish-brown brick accents pierces the roof. A thick skirting of rough-faced ashlar masonry covers the base of the depot. Above this, the station walls are of light reddish-brown brick. Stone trim and buff bricks frame the window and door openings. The station's double-hung, one-over-one windows are generally grouped in pairs or triplets. The majority of the windows and several of the doors feature leaded-glass transoms. A small basement is located beneath the southeastern end of the station and is accessed by stairs in the baggage room.

The simple exterior of the Charlotte depot relies primarily on the contrasts in texture and color between reddish-brown brick, buff brick, and ashlar masonry for decoration. The entrance, however, is notable for its brick and limestone porch featuring a smooth-faced ashlar masonry base, round Doric-inspired columns flanking the entrance, and an egg and dart molded brick band surrounding the brick framing of the entrance. The porch has a mosaic tile floor.

The interior of the Charlotte depot is divided into a main waiting area, a ladies' waiting room, and a baggage room. The main waiting area features stained dark wood moldings framing the window and door openings and dark wood paneling on the lower half of the walls. An oak-paneled ticket booth is located in the bay window on the track side of the depot. Opposite the ticket booth and adjacent to the entrance, two carved wood Ionic columns flank the entrance to the ladies' waiting room. The ladies' waiting room is finished on the interior with painted wood paneling and molding similar to that of the main waiting area. The most outstanding interior features of the Charlotte depot are the open ceiling and gabled roof of the main waiting area. Dark stained wood trusses span the space, rising from carved corbels, and support purlins and the dark stained ceiling of narrow beaded boards.

After serving as a railroad station until about 1948, the Charlotte depot was rehabilitated to serve as an ice cream parlor and restaurant. The main waiting room and ladies' waiting room are the dining area of the restaurant; however, the original floorplan division between main waiting room and ladies' waiting room is maintained in the restaurant layout. The restaurant is entered through the front entrance porch. In 1991 this porch was enclosed with vertical wood paneling to create a main entrance foyer accessed by double glass doors. With its iron grill removed, the ticket booth remains in use as the cash register area of the restaurant. The mosaic floor on the interior of the depot is covered by carpet. A few of the leaded-glass windows have been removed from the transoms of windows in the baggage room in order to allow for the installation of ventilation fans. The baggage room and rear part of the main passenger waiting area are partitioned off and form the restaurant kitchen.