Photo: Ford
Renovation work is like a box of chocolates if we are allowed to paraphrase Forrest Gump’s mother. You never know what might fall out of a wall you’re tearing down or hide behind a plaster cornice.
Back in 2018, American carmaker Ford bought the Michigan Central Station intending to turn it into “a vibrant new campus that will serve as an innovation hub for Ford’s vision for the future of transportation.”
The massive building has been around since 1913, acting as the main intercity passenger rail depot until it was abandoned in 1988. It is presently the subject of a massive restoration process, with construction crews hard at work turning it into something suitable for our time and finding all sorts of interesting things in the process.
Over the past two years, the Blue Oval’s construction crews dug out more than 200 items, things like tickets and invoices, a saucer from a china set, and even a secret room containing an adding machine, baby shoes, and women’s shoes, among others.
But probably the most important find thus far is a 1913 Stroh’s beer bottle dating back to 1913. It’s not the bottle itself that rattled Ford into releasing a long statement about it, though, but the piece of paper rolled up inside it, with a written message and all.
The message is handwritten and was removed on Thursday by a “Ford archivist” in a bid to reveal its contents. Ford did not officially spill out the contents of the text, but a photo of the paper (check gallery) shows it reads "Dan Hogan and Geo Smith stuck this (unreadable word) of Chicago 1913." The two are presumably people who originally helped build the station.
The carmaker plans to handle the message paper with care in a temperature-controlled space, and place it inside a storage box after it will be re-humidified.
The massive building has been around since 1913, acting as the main intercity passenger rail depot until it was abandoned in 1988. It is presently the subject of a massive restoration process, with construction crews hard at work turning it into something suitable for our time and finding all sorts of interesting things in the process.
Over the past two years, the Blue Oval’s construction crews dug out more than 200 items, things like tickets and invoices, a saucer from a china set, and even a secret room containing an adding machine, baby shoes, and women’s shoes, among others.
But probably the most important find thus far is a 1913 Stroh’s beer bottle dating back to 1913. It’s not the bottle itself that rattled Ford into releasing a long statement about it, though, but the piece of paper rolled up inside it, with a written message and all.
The message is handwritten and was removed on Thursday by a “Ford archivist” in a bid to reveal its contents. Ford did not officially spill out the contents of the text, but a photo of the paper (check gallery) shows it reads "Dan Hogan and Geo Smith stuck this (unreadable word) of Chicago 1913." The two are presumably people who originally helped build the station.
The carmaker plans to handle the message paper with care in a temperature-controlled space, and place it inside a storage box after it will be re-humidified.
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