Depot Town - History

History

In 2011 The Mill Works Building now houses the Ypsilanti Food Co-op and the River Street Bakery.

Depot Town was created after the Ypsilanti Train Depot was opened in 1838. As the railroad connected Ypsilanti, MI with Detroit, the area surrounding the depot grew. The commercial community known as Depot Town was built over the thirty years following the arrival of the railroad, and most of the buildings standing today were built from 1850 to 1880. In the early years, Depot Town included a flour mill, a large farmers' store, an iron foundry, a fire department, a clothing store, and paved streets. Ypsilanti's original city hall and jail were built just across the Huron River from Depot Town on West Cross Street. As the depot was built one mile north of the Chicago Road (now Michigan Avenue), the community of Ypsilanti was split between competing locations.

One of the earliest developments of note in Depot Town was the Western Hotel, built by Mark Norris. Opening in May 1839, the Western Hotel stood on a triangular plot west of River Street and north of the railroad track. Around 1860, the Michigan Central Railroad bought the land to replace the old wood plank depot with a newer, more modern brick depot. Norris demolished his hotel and carried the bricks across River Street, where he built a three-story Italianate structure, which became known as the Norris Block.

In early 1860, Depot Town experienced a large fire, which spread sparks so far that a barn one-third of a mile away was destroyed.

I've been told by two interesting people of those days about a couple of sales that were made at the Depot. One was when Denny Doyle sold the Follett House. It seems that business had fallen off quite a lot. Denny wanted to sell the place so he heard about a fellow by the name of Mathias who was looking for a tavern so he invited him to Ypsilanti to take a look at the Follett House. Denny was a little bit unscrupulous in his business actions but he got a group of fellows to go to Ann Arbor with suit cases and another group to go down to Wayne and when the Michigan Central train came in these fellows flocked into the Follett House to register and stay over night. Mathias was sitting in the lobby and he looked over the crowd and just then the train came in from the other way and these fellows he had sent to Wayne came in. Well, the bar was doing business and the barber shop was doing business and Mathias was mesmerized by the amount of business he anticipated so he bought the place; and didn't they sell him another place up in the Thompson Building for an overflow of his patrons. Well, he paid his money and he owned the hotel and Doyle was gone.

Joseph H. Thompson

Tunnels, originally built for water drainage, passed beneath the railroad and ran between the Thompson Block and the businesses on Cross Street, and were used as hiding places by escaped slaves, who hid by day and then rode boats down the Huron River by night. Leonard Chase, a known abolitionist, also operated a station on the Underground Railroad from 1841 to 1860, hiding escaped slaves in his home near the depot. Also during the American Civil War, the Norris Block was used as a barracks by two regiments: the Fourteenth Michigan Infantry Regiment in early 1862, and the Twenty-Seventh Michigan Infantry Regiment in 1863. Oliver E. Thompson bought the building in 1869, and as it passed down through several generations of the Thompson family, it eventually became known as the Thompson Block.

The Michigan Central Depot was widely known for the gardens which surrounded it. The longtime gardener, John Laidlaw, built enormous arrangements that evoked Niagara Falls, the battleship Maine, and well-known landscapes.

By the 1950s, railroad traffic declined and parts of Depot Town began to fall into disrepair. The Thompson Block was put up for sale in 1950, standing vacant for more than a year. A series of businesses openned and closed in the building, with none finding lasting success. In the late 1960s, landlord David Kircher bought the building, using it as a warehouse. From 1996 until 2005, the building was tied up in legal disputes. Kircher was found guilty of demolition by neglect, and first Barnes and Barnes and then Beal Properties were named receivers. In May 2006, Stewart Beal purchased the building outright.

Amtrak passenger trains continued to stop in Depot Town until the early 1980s, ending round trip stops in 1982, with the eastbound train, the Michigan Executive, making its last Ypsilanti stop in 1984.

Depot Town is expected to be a stop on a proposed Ann Arbor to Detroit SEMCOG Commuter Rail line. However, there is no boarding platform, and it is not clear which side of the tracks a platform would be built on.