HART, MI
South End/Street Side, Hart Depot.
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The Chicago & Michigan Lakeshore Railroad was founded
in 1869, to build a railroad from St. Joseph, Michigan to the Indiana state
line. The C&MLS acquired charters of three other railroads, and rapidly
built a line from New Buffalo to Pentwater, with a branch to Grand Rapids.
These routes were completed in 1872. In 1878 the railroad was reorganized
as the Chicago & West Michigan. In 1882 the C&WM built a branch from
Mears to Hart. |
| The Hart depot probably dates back to the opening of
the branch in 1882. It was built to a plan used on many C&MLS/C&WM
depots all over west Michigan. They all had horizontal siding, with vertical
siding in the gable ends, and distinctive stick style braces under the roof
and in the gable ends. Another one of these still exists in
Watervleit. Other examples from Rapid City,
Remus, Bellaire, Bay Shore, Barryton, Grawn, New Richmond, Casnovia, Sparta,
Newaygo, Central Lake and Grandville
are all gone. |
 |
| Passenger service to Hart ended some time before 1937.
The depot remained open until 1975 for freight service. The tracks were taken
out in 1982. The right-of-way became the Hart-Montague Trail State
Park.
The Hart depot is not part of the trail property. It is
privately owned. Most of it is used for storage, with the north end serving
as retail shop space. It looks like the present building is just the freight
room portion of the depot. Old photos of Hart show a longer building, with
a waiting room on the north end. The building is not in very good shape,
but it is still standing; one of the few survivors of a design that was once
common in west Michigan. |
North End/Track Side: Hart Michigan.
Old Postcard view of Hart depot.
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