Union Depot - CN & CSX Junction - Holly, MI - Active Rail Locations on Waymarking.com

The Holly Union Depot is a nice safe place to see trains pass by from two rails, the CN & the CSX, to this day. Now if only they could get the rest of the money raised for the interior. Whenever that happens, they'll still be trying to decide what exactly they want to do with the place.

Holly is about 40 miles northwest of Detroit, on the route of the old Detroit and Milwaukee, which came under control of the Grand Trunk Railroad in 1878. A 1928 merger officially made the route part of the Grand Trunk. In the 1990's, the Grand Trunk was merged into Canadian National.

There were two earlier D & M depots in Holly. The first was a very primitive building, thrown up as part of the initial construction of the railroad. The "permanent" depot seems to have been poorly constructed and not well maintained.

There were many complaints made to the railroad about the condition of the depot, but nothing was done. It got to the point where the Holly depot became the laughing stock of the line. In August of 1884 the depot caught fire. The fire department was on the scene within minutes, but the fire hydrants and hoses seem to have frozen, (IN AUGUST!) The depot burned to the ground.

The replacement depot, was designed by George Mason, chief architect and engineer for the D&M Railroad. It was built in 1886.

The depot is just to the northwest of the crossing with the Pere Marquette/CSX line running to Saginaw, and was built as a "Union Station" to also serve the PM. The south side of the building faces the D&M/GT/CN tracks. On the north side is a track which curves off the PM/CSX route.

This was a just passenger station. A separate freight station was built just to the west. Each railroad had its own office/ticket window in the middle of the building, with a large bay window facing the tracks. West of the offices was a lunch counter and the general waiting room. East of the offices was the ladies waiting room. In addition to offering a refuge to women and children from the foul-mouthed, tobacco-spitting, cigar-smoking men of the times, it had its own heat and indoor plumbing with hot water.

Information courtesy of Greta Mackler, Holly Historical Society.

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