The Grand Truck Railway, largely using European
capital, built an extensive system that by 1859, stretched from Portland,
Maine across Canada to Sarnia,
Ontario. The entrepreneurs assumed that ships from around the world would dock
in Portland. The Grand Trunk would deliver their products to Canada and the
Midwestern area of the United States and, in turn, take the products for export
to Portland from the same area.
In 1860, the firm laid rails from Port Huron to Detroit. In the 1860s, the
Grand Trunk also began considering building a line across Michigan that would
connect Chicago to their large rail system. In the 1870s, they built or purchased
lines linking Windsor, Ontario to Buffalo and Toronto. They expanded their
lines in Michigan and, by the 1880s, the Grand Trunk operated one major line
from Port Huron to Chicago and another from Detroit to Grand Haven. These lines
intersected in Durand, Michigan. The Grand Trunk offered through service from
Detroit to Chicago on this rather circuitous line, a line that dipped into
Indiana after leaving Battle Creek and Cassopolis before reaching Chicago.
Indeed, the passenger trains on this line survived until the start of Amtrak
in May, 1971. The Grand Trunk’s primary station in Detroit was near the
intersection of Brush and Atwater and remained there until the construction
of the Renaissance Center. The Grand Trunk had direct
trains from Detroit to numerous points in Michigan and to Chicago. You could
also board train cars
in Detroit for destinations in Canada. Until the 1950s, these cars were put
on the railroad ferries that once plied the Detroit River, were off loaded
in Windsor and then attached to trains departing for Toronto, Mo
ntréal
and intermediate stations.
In the era of rail travel, stations were often located at some distance from the central business district. Railroads opened what are known as city ticket offices so that businessmen and travelers could readily purchase tickets without making a trip to the station. In the 1890s, the Grand Trunk Railroad had a ticket office at the southwest corner of Woodward and Jefferson where the One Woodward building designed by Minoru Yamasaki now stands. Apparently, the Grand Trunk closed that office and, in 1903, purchased the building at 612 Woodward that you see pictured above.
This building was constructed in 1878. The ground floor was used by Traub Brothers & Co, a jewelry firm. I presume that the upper stories were residential units. After the Grand Trunk secured this building, they ripped out the second floor and put in an elegant vaulted ceiling 25 feet in height with very attractive woodwork. Brass chandeliers cast their light on hardwood floors. Presumably, this suggested to customers that they were purchasing tickets in a building almost as elegant as the rail stations constructed in that era. You will note that the carved stone work on the Woodward façade proudly proclaims Grand Trunk with the company’s logo engraved in stone at a higher elevation.. If you go inside today, you will see the GT logo then used to imprint the line’s name in their customers’ minds carved in the woodwork in several places. Until Amtrak, the Michigan Central Railroad and the Grand Trunk competed for Detroit to Chicago passengers. The Michigan Central got the lion’s share of the business because of its more direct route. In 1938, the Grand Trunk closed this ticket office. I believe that the retail space in this building has been used as a bar since the railroad moved away.
The current owner of the establishment has a strong interest in the heritage of this building. A visit to the location reveals a gradual restoration is underway creating the ambiance and railroad themes that the Grand Truck created some 105 years ago. There are plans to covert the building next door, Albert Kahn’s 1908 Vinton Building, into condominiums. If that is accomplished and if additional buildings in downtown Detroit are converted into condominiums as planned, one can imagine thriving activity for the restaurant now located in this former city ticket office.
The Grand Trunk Railroad, facing bankruptcy at the end of World War I, was nationalized by the Canadian government at the start of 1920. It was then merged with the Canadian National, a crown corporation and the largest railroad in Canada with tracks reaching as far east as St. John's, Newfoundland and as far west as Prince Rupert, British Columbia. The lines in Michigan were operated independently as the Grand Trunk Western Railway. In 1992, the Canadian government began the slow process of privatizing the Canadian National Railroad. After the privatization was complete, the Grand Trunk name disappeared and the numerous lines that remain in Michigan are known as the Canadian National Railroad.
Architect: Unknown to me
Date of Construction of original building: 1938
Use in 2008: Foran’s Irish Pub
Website: http://foransirishpub.com/
City of Detroit Designated Historic District: Not listed
State of Michigan Registry of Historic Sites: Not listed
National Register of Historic Places: Not listed
Photograph: Ren Farley; November 15, 2008
Description prepared: November, 2008