DETROIT – The first train rolled out of Michigan Central Station on Dec. 26, 1913.

The locomotive was headed to Saginaw Bay, and a train from Chicago arrived at the new station later that evening.

Michigan Central Station was originally scheduled to open in 1914, but a fire at the old depot at Third and Jefferson avenues forced the station to open early.

“The new station stood last night, lights shining from windows high above the building line in the neighborhood, a sentinel of progress,” the Detroit Tribune published after the station’s rushed opening.

The rise and fall

The large building in Corktown became a symbol known around the world, as travelers came and left Detroit. However, the station would eventually fall victim to decreased train traffic and become a less desirable symbol of decay in the city.

The main waiting room closed in April 1967. Amtrak took over in 1971, reopened the waiting room, and invested over $1 million in renovations, including a new bus terminal.

The station was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1975.

Despite these efforts, use continued to decline. Amtrak moved to a smaller station, and in 1985, the building was sold to Kaybee Corp., a New York-based company.

MCS ceased to serve as a transportation hub when the last Chicago-bound train departed the station on Jan. 5, 1988.

For decades, plans for the building consistently fell through, and it became a place for vandals, the unhoused and urban explorers.

Scrappers had stolen anything they could reach, and the open roof allowed weather to impact the inside of the building.

Rise again

Ford Motor Co. announced it had purchased the train station in the summer of 2018.

The automaker poured significant money into the iconic building and gave tours as it renovated the structure.

More than three thousand workers spent 1.7 million hours of labor on the station. Millions of gallons of water were pumped from the basement.

—> See before and after photos of restoration at Detroit’s Michigan Central Station

The building celebrated its reopening with a massive, sold-out concert on June 6, 2024. Diana Ross, Jack White and Eminem performed.

After years of renovations, the historic train station was given new life and has become a hub for tech and innovation, housing multiple businesses, retail space and more.

But that’s not all. A Literary Lounge is scheduled to open in 2026. A luxury hotel expected to open in 2027 will be located on the top five floors.

A new transit hub, including Amtrak service, is also set to bring new passenger rail and bus connections.

Car Radio 910AM-Detroit: Podcast, December 23, 2025

Host: Henry Payne, Auto columnist, The Detroit News

Car shoppers had plenty of choices in 2025 as auto grocery shelves were teeming with goods. At The Detroit News, we’re biased towards value, style, innovation, and performance – and we choose our Vehicle of the Year accordingly. As Detroit News auto critic, I tested 59 new cars this year from the compact, $24,000 Nissan Sentra gas-sipper to the posh, $82,000 Lucid Gravity EV. For Vehicle of the Year, I reduced that list to three finalists: Mazda CX-30, Chevy Corvette ZR1, Dodge Charger SIXpack. 2 min. Originally aired December 23, 2025 on the Auto Report, 910AM-Detroit WFDF

A former employee of a Metro Detroit moving service business is accused of misappropriating funds and transferring the company’s money to her personal accounts.

Deborah Beaudoin is facing a federal charge of wire fraud, according to a criminal complaint filed on Dec. 10, 2025.

Homeland Security began investigating the case on Sept. 4, 2023, when the Van Buren Township Police Department requested support for an ongoing investigation into alleged fraud at a small business called Rose Moving and Storage.

According to the criminal complaint, the business accused former financial controller, Beaudoin, of misappropriating over $215,000 from Rose Moving and Storage by ordering company debit cards, transferring business funds to the cards and then transferring the business funds to her personal accounts.

On Oct. 5, 2023, authorities interviewed the chief financial officer of the parent company of Rose Moving and Storage, and he explained that the business is a moving company that contracts with owner-operated truck drivers. He then said the drivers use their own cars and pay their moving crews to service customers at Rose Moving and Storage. However, the truck drivers typically did not have the financial capital to front their costs. So, the business would “front” the truck drivers about $4,000 to $5,000 to cover initial expenses, including gas and the payment of the moving crew.

The employees, including Beaudoin, would order the company debit cards issued in the name of the driver, load them with company funds and give them to the truck driver to pay their initial costs and complete the moving transactions. After the job is complete, the amount “fronted” by the business would be deducted from the final payment to the truck drivers.

Beaudoin is accused of devising a scheme to misappropriate funds by ordering and obtaining unauthorized company debit cards from the company’s provider, typically using names that contained different iterations of the company name, including” R. Rose Moving,” “R. Storage” and “R. Rose Moving ST,” then using company monies to fund them in amounts ranging from just over $1,000 to as much as $3,000 before withrawing the funds in cash using ATMs at different banks.

After withdrawing the funds, she allegedly deposited the cash into her personal accounts.

Beaudoin allegedly created fake entries on the company ledger for expenses such as “repairs” and would allocate the money she had appropriated from the company to these fake expenses to legitimize the costs.

Homeland Security found that Beaudoin obtained over 60 fraudulent company debit cards from 2017 to 2023.

According to federal authorities, her use of Huntington Bank’s ATM machines to withdraw funds she had allegedly misappropriated from the business “caused the transmission of wire communication in interstate commerce,” leading to her facing a federal charge.