Click above images to enlarge Grand Trunk Western Railroad, Mount Clemens Station 198 Grand Street, at Cass Avenue, Mount Clemens - Macomb County Other Names Mount Clemens Railroad Depot / Thomas Edison Site Property Type railroad depot Historic Use TRANSPORTATION/rail related Current Use WORK IN PROGRESS Style Italianate Late Victorian Significant Person Thomas Edison Narrative Description The Grand Trunk Western Rail Station (Mount Clemens Depot) is a one-story, rectangular Italianate brick building with wooden trim and gabled roof resting on a stone foundation. Constructed as a passenger depot along the Grand Trunk's Port Huron-Detroit route, it was completed in 1859. The walls of the station are faced with red pressed brick and coursed in common bond. Yellow brick quoins accent facade corners. The long sides of the station are divided into five bays of arched fenestration with yellow brick hood molds. The gabled ends of the building feature two bays of arched windows with yellow brick hood molds, surmounted by a yellow, brick-enframed recessed ocular window. Rounded arch wooden brackets support a steeply pitched, shingled gabled roof with eight-foot extended eaves. Statement of Significance The Grand Trunk Western Railroad Station at Mount Clemens notes the advent of rail passenger service to the city and marks the site where famous inventor Thomas Edison learned his first lessons in train telegraphy. In the fall of 1859, Grand Trunk opened passenger depots at Port Huron and Mount Clemens, a small community which attracted public attention in 1872 for the quality of the city's mineral waters. Samuel Edison moved his family to Port Huron in 1854 and in 1859, twelve-year-old Thomas Edison secured a job on the Port Huron to Detroit Grand Trunk run as a newsboy and candy salesman. At the Mount Clemens station in August 1862, Edison rescued a three-year-old boy from the path of an oncoming box car. In gratitude, the boy's father, station agent J.U. Mackenzie, offered to teach Edison train telegraphy and operation. In later years, when Edison left Michigan to pursue his inventive career, J.U. Mackenzie joined Edison as a research associate at his Menlo Park, New Jersey laboratory and contributed to several inventions. After the Grand Trunk closed the station in 1953, the station housed several local businesses. It was purchased by the City of Mount Clemens in 1980 and restored as a railroad museum and library. Marker Name Thomas Edison Marker Text Thomas Edison While working as a railway newsboy on the Detroit-Port Huron line, Tom Edison often stopped in Mount Clemens. He made friends with station agent J. U. Mackenzie and in 1862 saved Mackenzie's young son from death by a train. In gratitude Mr. Mackenzie taught Tom Edison railroad telegraphy. From his training Tom became a qualified railroad telegrapher and worked during the 1860s at this occupation. Some of his earliest inventions were based on the telegraph. Period of Significance 1826-1865 Significant Date(s) 1859 Registry Type(s) 08/02/1973 Marker erected 10/26/1981 National Register listed 05/17/1973 State Register listed Site ID# P24060