Mount Clemens

City successfully establishes first historic district

By Sarah Cormier
C & G Staff Writer

MOUNT CLEMENS — Third time’s a charm.

After two failed attempts at trying to establish historic districts in the city — one on Cass Avenue and one on Lincoln Street — the Mount Clemens City Commission has successfully created one for 198 Grand Street, where the Mount Clemens Train Depot is located.

An adoption of an ordinance making the district official was approved at the June 15 Mount Clemens City Commission meeting.

Although formation of the district was given the go-ahead by the city, Community Development Director Bonnie McInerney said that the ordinance will not go into effect for 10 days. Moreover, she will have to prepare paperwork that must be filed with the county register of deeds to ensure the whole process is official, a key step that was not completed when the city attempted to make Lincoln Street a historic district.

McInerney added that the city first began looking into establishing a district at the historic spot last September. A Train Depot Historic District Study Committee was formed and tasked with looking at the feasibility of turning the area into a historic district. The report written by the group recommended that the City Commission go ahead with the procedure.

Mount Clemens Mayor Barb Dempsey said that the purpose of establishing the area as a historic district is to honor the train depot, but also to secure grant money to help refurbish the spot, which she said is “in dire need of repair.”

“I think by doing a district now it will bring it to the forefront in terms of applying for various grants to help us restore it and maintain it,” she said.

“The building is important to Mount Clemens, and we want to be able to maintain and keep it up, and one of the ways of obtaining funding is through the historic designation,” agreed McInerney.

McInerney said that right now, the city just doesn’t have the funds to fix up the depot, although they recently allocated $5,000 in Community Development Block Grant funds to use for walkway and concrete repairs in front of the station. She added that she hopes she can find some grant money soon.

“We continue to look for grants. I haven’t seen anything immediately,” said McInerney. “I’m hoping that maybe next year there will be another round of grants for historical properties.”

Dempsey is just glad that the city was able to successfully establish a district. The establishment of the Lincoln Street Historic District went far in the process, but after much controversy, it was discovered it wasn’t created properly. A committee formed to establish a historic district on Cass Avenue was dissolved due to a lack of meeting by members. Dempsey said that the train depot was a good place to start for the city’s first successful historic district creation. 

“There’s really nothing around it to be controversial like Lincoln Street,” she said. According to the Michigan Center for Geographic Information, the Mount Clemens Railroad Depot was constructed in 1859 and was used as a passenger station along the Grand Trunk Western Railroad’s Port Huron-Detroit route.

It is also where Thomas Edison first learned about train telegraphy. He got a job as a newsboy and candy salesman on the Port Huron to Detroit Grand Trunk route, and in 1862, he reportedly even saved a 3-year-old boy from a moving boxcar. As thanks, the station agent taught Edison train telegraphy and operation.

The station closed in 1953 and was home to several businesses; it was purchased and restored by the city of Mount Clemens in 1980. A historic marker was erected on Aug. 2, 1973. The depot was listed on the National Register of Historic Places on Oct. 26, 1981, and on the State Register of Historic Sites on May 17, 1973.

You can reach C & G Staff Writer Sarah Cormier at scormier@candgnews.com or at (586)498-1095.