LOST HISTORY

Generations of Detroiters arrived at the Michigan Central Station in southwest Detroit: African Americans from the Deep South; Poles, Romanians and Hungarians from Eastern Europe; Lebanese and Syrians from the Middle East.


The depot's once-grand lobby, built in 1913, was their first glimpse of Detroit, a sure sign that their lives had changed forever. The empty, elegant ruin once hummed with people who walked on marble floors under gold-plated chandeliers. This is sullied but sacred ground.
"It's our Ellis Island," said Shaun Nethercott, who lives a mile from the depot and is the founder and executive director of Matrix Theatre Co. on Bagley.
Now, in its desolation, the depot has become a tourist magnet, attracting thousands of photographers. Is it poverty magnet that draws them, or a real thirst to understand?