Tradesman spent over 400 hours carving capital stone ahead of Michigan Central’s reopening

(CBS DETROIT) – Michigan Central is reopening this week after an extensive six-year renovation, restoring the station to its former architectural grandeur. 

Ford Motor Company purchased the building in 2018, and during the restoration process, construction teams utilized different technologies to preserve, repurpose, and replicate various parts of the station. Construction on the station began in 1912 and originally opened to travelers in 1913. 

Part of this work included creating an 11,500-pound replica of an original capital stone, which has been installed in Michigan Central’s Waiting Room façade. Capital stones are the decorative pieces at the top of a structural column, and are a key feature of the Beaux-Arts building.

The construction company had planned to use 3D scanning to rebuild the capital stone, but they realized the work needed to be done manually, so John Goodrow Sr. of Capital Stoneworks Inc., located in Bridgeport, Michigan, was tasked with the project. 

However, before the capital stone could be carved, Ford needed to obtain limestone for the project. With the automaker’s commitment to honoring and recreating details of Michigan Central’s past, it located the same quarry in Indiana from which the original stone was sourced in 2013. 

Dark Hollow Quarry had been closed for three decades but reopened for this project. 

Goodrow ended up spending 428 hours carving the capital stone replica from a 21,000-pound block of limestone.

“It’s a lot of visualization,” said Goodrow. “I start with a solid square block and work from the outside in. You have to see the finished product done in your mind to be able to do it. You can either do it or you can’t.”

Goodrow said that old-school methods and tools were necessary to recreate the capital stone, and nearly every detail was meticulously created using air-powered chisels. 

“I’ve done bigger pieces of stone carvings, but this is by far the largest capital I’ve ever done,” said Goodrow, who has carved nearly 1,000 capital stones in his 37-year career. “It was a lot of work.”  

The limestone from the same Indiana quarry was also used on the Empire State Building, the National Cathedral and the Pentagon. 

Michigan Central will reopen on June 6, and the celebrations will kick off with a concert. Michigan natives Diana Ross, Big Sean, Illa J, Jack White, Kierra Sheard, Theo Parrish, Slum Village, the Clark Sisters, Sky Jetta, and the Detroit Symphony Orchestra will perform.