Michigan Transit Museum

The Michigan Transit Museum makes its home in the historic Grand Trunk Western depot at 198 Grand Street in Mount Clemens, a one-story Italianate brick station on the Port Huron to Detroit line the railroad opened in the fall of 1859. The depot holds a singular place in American lore: soon after the line opened, the railroad hired twelve-year-old Thomas Edison as a newsboy and candy salesman on the Port Huron–Detroit run, and in August 1862, during a layover at Mount Clemens, Edison snatched a three-year-old boy from the path of an approaching train. As a reward, the child's father — station agent J. U. Mackenzie — taught young Edison train telegraphy and operation, sparking the future inventor's interest in technology. Grand Trunk closed the station in 1953 and used it for storage and other railroad purposes until at least 1972; the city of Mount Clemens purchased and restored the building in 1980, and the Michigan Transit Museum now leases it from the city. The depot was designated a Michigan State Historic Site in 1973 and listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1981 as the Grand Trunk Western Railroad, Mount Clemens Station.