There’s a Secret, Hidden Basement Under Michigan Central Station in Detroit No One Ever Knew About

Michigan Central Station is one of the most striking buildings in Detroit dominating the skyline in the Corktown neighborhood. Once a hub for train travel in the city, it sat vacantly and abandoned for decades before Ford took control of the building and began redeveloping it.

Work crews were surprised recently as they were pumping water from the basement to discover a sub-basement. The most striking part of the 60,000 square foot space is that it was never on the building's original floorplan or blueprint.

Ford's plan for the facility, which is projected to employ 5,000 people, will be an "innovation and mobility campus."

A Facebook page on the project shares:

This month, we stabilized the station with the final concrete pour in that "surprise basement," and we continue to install concrete floors on upper levels, working our way up the tower to the roof.

Commentors on the video update were able to share some insight and lore around the basement space.

• I guess you didn't talk to any former employees. We knew there was a sub basement.
•  just know that the employee complained about cats in that basement and all the fleas. I know the police department had a gun range down there.
• I was told that the post office had a track that went underground and into the station from my father that worked at P.O. Wonder if that was down there?
• My buddy has been on this project from the start. You do not want to know what was down there lol
• 60,000 ft.² is a pretty huge space. That's the size of the average suburban grocery store. Wow.
• a company i worked for pumped the water out and we cleaned the basement spotless.. Was nothing down there but some rotted bookshelves

That concrete pour into the basement is intended to shore up the foundation of the skyscraper. So for the basement, it's found and then lost again, sadly.