Ford has big plans for historic Detroit train station it just bought

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It used to be the tallest station in the world when opened in 1913

Ford has acquired a historic Detroit landmark, the Michigan Central Station built in 1913, which had lain abandoned for years. Now the Blue Oval wants to turn it into “the hub of a campus for advanced automotive technology in the Corktown neighborhood.”

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According to the Detroit Free Press, the deal also included a nearby school book depository, and Ford will announce its full plans for the site come June 19. Apparently, the automaker intends to buy more property in Crocktown, a historic neighborhood just west of downtown Detroit.

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During its peak use years, in the 1940s, over 200 trains left the station each day, moving some 4,000 passengers. The building started to become irrelevant as a railway station after the Second World War and its owners had several attempts to sell it – in 1956 and 1963. It never really served purpose afterward, laying completely or partly closed until all activity on site ceased in 2004.

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