Detroit Harbor Terminal Building
The Detroit Harbor Terminal Building, also known as the Detroit Marine Terminal Building, was a large ten-story warehouse on the Detroit River in Detroit, Michigan. It stood on West Jefferson Avenue, between South McKinstry and Clark Streets, near the Ambassador Bridge. Ground was broken after the Detroit Railway and Harbor Terminals Company issued $3.75 million in bonds in 1925 to build a 12-acre terminal and related facilities. The reinforced-concrete building opened on March 15, 1926, and was the largest warehouse of its kind on the Great Lakes, covering about 900,000 square feet. It was designed by Albert Kahn’s firm.
The warehouse later came under the Boblo Island Amusement Co. and was used until 2003 when the site was foreclosed; the nearby Boblo Island Amusement Park had already been abandoned since 1993. In 2016, a fire broke out in fourth-floor offices and burned overnight.
In 2021, the Moroun Company bought the property with plans to demolish it. Demolition began in 2022 but paused amid reports of objections from the Detroit-Wayne County Port Authority. Demolition resumed in late March 2023, with the Jefferson-facing facade and a large portion of the main building coming down. By September 2023, demolition was finished and debris removal continued into November. By August 2024, all debris was cleared and new buildings had taken its place.
This page was last edited on 2 February 2026, at 17:02 (CET).