Depot Town: Ypsilanti's Railroad Quarter
Near Ann Arbor, Michigan
When the Michigan Central Railroad reached Ypsilanti in eighteen thirty-eight, the community that grew up around the depot became its own distinct neighborhood east of the Huron River. Within decades the commercial strip included a flour mill, iron foundry, farmers' store, and clothing shops. A brick depot replaced the original wooden station around eighteen sixty.
Most of the brick storefronts standing in Depot Town today date from eighteen fifty to eighteen eighty. The neighborhood has cycled through industrial, commercial, and entertainment uses over the generations and is now a walkable historic district with restaurants and live music venues, its nineteenth-century buildings still intact along the Huron riverfront.
