Durand Union Station grew out of the expansion of rail service around the village once known as Vernon Center. The town incorporated as Durand in 1887. Spier and Rohms designed its large union station, which first opened in 1903. Fire nearly destroyed it eighteen months later, and it was rebuilt in 1905. The building that survives makes sense when seen in relation to the tracks around it. It served a railway junction, where the paths of trains and the journeys of passengers converged.
Local preservation efforts led to the creation of Durand Union Station, Inc. in 1982. In 1991 the Michigan Legislature selected the station to house the Michigan Railroad History Museum. That choice tied a statewide collection to a building shaped by the same history. The exhibits explore the railroad’s importance to lumbering, mining, agriculture and industry. A visit can move between the station’s local story and the different kinds of traffic that Michigan railways carried.
The information center includes the Henry Earle Riggs Library and Margaret Zdunic Archives. Photographs and written records give researchers a way to follow railroads, workers and equipment beyond what can fit in the galleries. For example, a station photograph may show how tracks and platforms changed, while a timetable can reveal which journeys were possible from the junction. Ask about research access separately if you are looking for particular records.
Look closely at the station’s overall shape and the views along its trackside elevations. Its unusual placement is more informative than an isolated view of the façade. From a public area, consider how travelers would have found the right platform when trains serving different routes passed the building. The station continues to have several public uses. The building’s railway setting and the collection’s statewide scope give the visit two complementary scales.
Visitor information
Researched November 2026.
Sources
More railroad museums in Michigan
- Alden Depot Museum — Alden: Depot and local history museum
- Clinton Northern Railway Museum — St Johns: Depot and railway-car collection
- Crossroads Village & Huckleberry Railroad — Flint: Living-history village with operating heritage railway
- Harbor Country Museum of History + Rail (formerly New Buffalo Railroad Museum) — New Buffalo: Railroad and local history museum
- Saginaw Railway Museum — Saginaw: Depot and railroad history museum
- Southern Michigan Railroad Society — Clinton: Operating railroad museum
- Standish Historical Depot — Standish: Depot museum and welcome center
- Steam Railroading Institute — Owosso: Steam-locomotive preservation museum and operating collection
- All 11 railroad museums and sites in Michigan
Keep exploring
- All heritage sites — museums, stations and landmarks
- Midwest — the trains you can ride in the region