Station: Dearborn, MI

RRHX

Station: Dearborn, Michigan

Michigan's Internet Railroad History Museum

Dearborn, Michigan was located about 10 miles west of the original Michigan Central 3rd Street Station in Detroit. At the time of the building of the Central route by the State of Michigan in the early 1830's, Dearborn was a stage coach stop on the federal highway which connected Detroit with the Chicago area. The area boasted a small garrison for the U.S. Army and the area near what is now known as Michigan Avenue and Monroe Streets was home to a commandants quarters, armory, and other buildings.

The station pictured here was located south of Michigan Avenue, near Monroe Street which is actually now known as West Dearborn. In the 120 or so years that the depot or a predecessor existed, Dearborn was an important point on the Michigan Central. The area was double tracked here, and each direction had its own passing siding of over 100 cars, some of the longest on the Central. In the early 1900's, a junction switch was installed for a cutoff track which allowed eastbound trains to bypass the Detroit terminal area (the Detroit, Delray and Dearborn branch, see below). This branch was discontinued around 1920 when the Junction Yard branch was installed to serve the Ford Rouge plant.

The Dearborn station was finally torn down and not replaced in the 1950's.

[Photo - Mark Dobronski collection]

Below, a map of the junction between the MC main line and their Detroit, Delray & Dearborn branch. This branch was built between what is now West Dearborn and the Delray area of Detroit and served as a cut off for main line traffic bound for Toledo. The branch was short lived and torn out after the MC's Junction Yard Branch was built along side the Ford Rouge complex in Fordson (later East Dearborn). Ford built a tractor plant at this location in the early part of the 20th century. Greenfield Village was also constructed east of here in the late 1920's. [Drawing from blue prints in the State of Michigan Archive, by Dale Berry].