Dexter Depot / Track Pans

The Michigan Central Railroad reached Dexter from Detroit on July 4, 1841, just after Dexter’s first depot was completed. Frederick H. Spier of Detroit designed the present depot, which was completed in record time. Work began on November 6, 1886, and at noon on January 19, 1887, the station opened. The plantings for the grounds came from railroad greenhouses at Niles and Ypsilanti. The depot had two waiting rooms, a ticket office, and a baggage room. Passenger service ended at the Dexter Depot in 1953. Track Pans Kinnear, located two miles east of Dexter, was the site of Michigan’s first railroad track water pans, which were built in 1901. The pans were situated between the rails and heated during cold weather. Steam locomotives scooped up the water as they moved over the pans. The Kinnear pans and telegraph station were named after Wilson S. Kinnear, chief engineer of the Detroit River Railroad Tunnel. In 1913 the pans were dismantled and moved to Four Mile Lake between Dexter and Chelsea.