Location: Saginaw, MI - Potter Street Station and PM Facilities

Potter Street Station was the Flint & Pere Marquette's main station and office building in East Saginaw. It was built in 1881 and was (is)  located just east of the PM's Saginaw River Drawbridge and Washington Street.

Notes

A 1895 Sanborn-Merrin map [SBN] notes a F&PM depot about 200' west of the Mershon interlocking and this was likely their Saginaw station. (Note: The towns of Saginaw and East Saginaw combined together in 1889).

[SBN] also notes a roundhouse and lumber yard on the northeast corner of Potter and N. Washington Avenue.

Information from Doug Hefty:  "GO" was the telegraph (teletype) office on the 2nd floor of the Pere Marquette/C&O Potter Street depot in Saginaw.  All the messages from the Chief's office across the tracks were sent via a vacuum tube to "GO" and the operator there sent them via teletype to offices so equipped or phoned them for delivery to other locations.  These would include High/Wide loads, pick ups, etc.  We used to copy quite a few at Kearsley for southward trains.  "GO" also kept a file of all the train consists that came in over the teletype and forwarded them as necessary.  There would be teletype tape draped all over and we would often feed it into or out of an empty metal wastebasket to keep it from getting tangled up or stepped on!  That was really high tech!  I'm not sure when "GO" was closed, but I think before 1980.

Photo Info: Top and 2nd photo, postcard views of the Pere Marquette Potter Street Station in Saginaw. 3rd photo, the Potter Street Station in 1974 [Ken Annett photo, Charles Geletzke Jr. Collection]. 4th photo, a PM locomotive and caboose in front of Potter Street Station about 1950.

Time Line

1881. The station is built.

1892. A number of German emigrants straight from New York who came in on this afternoon's F&PM train and changed cars in Saginaw for Manistee, near which place they intend to locate. The party consisted of a man, two women and seven children, all of whom presented a picture of squalid misery and dirt seldom seen in this section. No one would go near them. [DFP-1892-0904]

1868. The second story of the passenger depot at East Saginaw has been finished off for a telegraph office and waiting room for train men. Alterations and improvements have also been made on the first floor for the offices of the different departments. [F&PM-1868]

1907. The PM installed a new transfer table, operated by electric power, at their Saginaw machine shop. They also built new stock pens here. [PMAR-1907]

1950. Passenger service at this station ends.

1989. The station is purchased by the Saginaw Depot Preservation Corporation.