Michigan Central Railroad Mason Depot facts for kids
Quick facts for kids
Mason
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| Location | 111 North Mason Street, Mason, Ingham County, Michigan 48854 | ||||||||||
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Michigan Central Railroad Mason Depot
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| Location | 111 N. Mason St., Mason, Michigan | ||||||||||
| Area | less than one acre | ||||||||||
| Built | 1902 | ||||||||||
| Architectural style | Bungalow/craftsman | ||||||||||
| MPS | Mason Michigan Historic MRA | ||||||||||
| NRHP reference No. | 85001239 | ||||||||||
| Added to NRHP | June 6, 1985 | ||||||||||
The Michigan Central Railroad Mason Depot is a historic building that used to be a train station in Mason, Michigan. You can find it at 111 North Mason Street. This important building was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1985. Today, it's no longer a train station. Instead, it's a restaurant called the Mason Depot Diner.
Contents
A Look Back: The Mason Depot's Story
How Trains Came to Mason
In 1865, a railroad company called the Jackson, Lansing, and Saginaw Railroad built train tracks through Mason, Michigan. This was a big step! It meant Mason was connected to the main Michigan Central Railroad line in Jackson. The train line was fully finished all the way to Lansing by 1866.
The Michigan Central Railroad started leasing, or renting, this train line in 1873. They began offering both freight (carrying goods) and passenger (carrying people) train services to Mason.
Building the Mason Depot
In 1902, the Michigan Central Railroad built this very train station. It was constructed right where an older freight station used to be. This new depot served people traveling by train until the 1930s. By 1945, all passenger train service had stopped completely.
What Happened Next?
After trains stopped carrying passengers, the building was empty for about 35 years. Then, in 1979, it was renovated and opened as an ice cream shop! Later, it became a pizza restaurant. Finally, in 1992, it was turned into the Mason Depot Diner, which was still open in 2017.
What the Depot Looks Like
The Michigan Central Railroad Mason Depot is a building with one and a half stories. It has a rectangular shape and a special kind of roof called a hipped roof. This means all sides of the roof slope downwards to the walls.
The building is made of light-colored bricks. It has darker bricks that create cool patterns. These darker bricks form a "water table" (a band near the bottom), a "frieze" (a decorative band near the top), and "quoins" (corner blocks). They also outline the windows and doors.
The depot has wide roof edges that hang over the walls. The main entrance is set back a bit. On either side of the entrance, there are pairs of windows. Above the entrance, there's a small roof section called a hipped dormer with a window made of three parts. The building has windows of different sizes, grouped in twos and threes. Many of them have smaller windows above them called transoms. Some even have leaded glass, which means small pieces of glass held together by lead strips.
