The hubs and I at Michigan Central Station in Detroit
Photo Credit: Von Wormer Photography
Photo Credit: Von Wormer Photography
I'm not exactly sure why, but I love abandoned, rundown buildings. I love the ones with broken windows, sagging doorways, and trees growing inside. I love their eerie stillness, and I love their sadness. I love them.
There's an element of romance to these buildings that makes me imagine what they must have been like during the times they possessed more life than the birds nesting in their beams. It makes me imagine how different they might have looked when somebody was putting love into their upkeep. Would these structures still make me pause, and would they still make me gaze up with wonder if they were not abandoned?
There's just something about Michigan Central Station that is so beautiful and tragic to me, which I suppose could be said about much of Detroit in general. This place in particular used to be the city's train hub, but it eventually shut its doors in the late 80s after years of dwindling passenger service and the departure of Amtrak. This massive building, once a space of hustle and bustle, is now just so quiet. I've never been inside since that's a tad illegal, and I would be too scared of falling through a rotting floor, but I swoon over photos taken by urban explorers, each frame exposing me to the beauty that has found a way to survive amidst neglect.
The city is supposedly working to renovate the building by removing asbestos and starting on the massive repairs needed after years of abandonment. Who knows if MCS will ever open its doors again? I just hope that a building this beautiful finds a way to stick around and stay strong.
