Michigan’s Historic Railroad Stations

Holly

81 This late-Victorian depot, a good-looking Italian villa built of orange brick trimmed out in buff-yellow, sits at the junction where the Detroit & Milwaukee Railway crossed the Flint & Pere Marquette tracks. You find it at the end of a short, dusty driveway some hundred feet off South Broad Street, in the heart of Holly’s downtown. In its lack of pretensions —and perhaps because of the way the afternoon sun lights up the orange brick—this modest, cross-gabled structure makes a bigger impression than its constituent elements might suggest. The sturdy station was built in 1886 by the Detroit and Milwaukee’s chief architect, George Mason (not to be confused with the Detroit architect George D. Mason), two years after the town’s Civil War–era depot burned down. The old station had been an object of scorn for years—“a mass of repairs and patches,” according to the February 14, 1886, Holly Advertiser . So knowledgeable residents might have had their suspicions when it burst into flames one August night in 1884. Holly’s fire department arrived promptly, the Advertiser notes on August 10, 1884, but “never before or since has it been so difficult to get a stream of water to play on the flames— each hydrant and each particular length of hose seemed either clogged or full of holes.” Helpful citizens pulled what they could from the burning edifice, but after that “seemed to consider their duty performed, and stood about in groups watching the flames.” The building was a total loss. The new station must have seemed the height of luxury when it opened two years later in 1886, boasting a separate ladies ’ waiting room (with a Smith and Owen heater for winter) and a walnut-trimmed lunch counter run by “an experienced caterer,” the Advertiser promised on February 14, “who will set out a clean palatable lunch, not an average railway ‘liverpad ’ that is often worked off on the unsuspecting public.” 1886—Detroit & Milwaukee, Flilnt & Pere Marquette Railways 223 South Broad Street ARCHITECT: George Mason LAST PASSENGER SERVICE: Circa 1964 CONDITION: Poor USE: Empty, undergoing renovation Holly Much like Gaines, Holly ended up with a good-looking cottage designed in the functional brick style that in Great Britain or Europe is alternately called “railroad style” or Italian villa, based in part on simple brick buildings in the Italian countryside. (Personal collection of Jacqueline Hoist and Ronald Campbell) 03 Part 2.indd 81 7/9/12 5:26 PM 82 03 Part 2.indd 82 7/9/12 5:26 PM 83 While there are plans to renovate the Holly station, its air of polite dilapidation lends the simple building an unexpected romance, at least in sunset light.While this is a simpler station than Gaines, it still boasts flourishes—like the decorative woodwork on the eaves (below). 03 Part 2.indd 83 7/9/12 5:26 PM 84 Holly’s had its share of famous visitors, perhaps none more dramatic than Carrie A. Nation in 1908. The anti-drink firebrand stepped out of Holly Union Depot for a full day of attacking unsuspecting saloons like an avenging angel. The local head of the Women’s Christian Temperance Union, Winifred Mott, had invited Nation to challenge the widespread existence of bars in a supposedly “dry” county. Nation’s first stop? The Holly Hotel bar. Once inside, Nation deployed her umbrella to good effect, sending liquor bottles flying. Enraged, the hotel owner threw her out, but far from chastened, Nation marched down Martha Street—now, appropriately, “Battle Alley”—smashing up every saloon she could find. After that, she trained her eyes on Michigan governor Fred Warner and the Oakland County sheriff, both of whom were to be campaigning in town the next day. Considering both hypocrites for not enforcing the county’s dry status, Nation lost no time accosting the governor . “Fred Warner,” Nation shouted, “how can you ask these people to vote for you when you are not upholding the law?” Warner executed a perfect political pirouette: “Better ask the sheriff about that,” he said, and melted into the crowd. In 1973, Holly launched an annual summer festival in Nation’s honor. Holly lost regular passenger service about 1964. But while campaigning for reelection in 1992, President George H. W. Bush and wife, Barbara, came through town on a special train and stopped to eat lunch, unmolested, at the Holly Hotel. While...