Peeling paint, shattered glass, and crumbling concrete – there’s something quite eerie about abandoned places. Time stands still and there isn’t a soul to be found. Abandoned places teach us about our history and show how everything in life eventually returns back to the Earth.
There is no shortage of abandoned places in Michigan from churches and automotive plants to hospitals and even an amusement park. This makes Michigan a prime destination for urban explorers who seek out abandoned places.
The bustling metropolis of Detroit was filled with some of the finest buildings and most advanced technologies of the time. But over the past decades Detroit has experienced a major demographic and economic decline. As the population of the city has fallen vast areas of the urban city have fallen into decay and disrepair.
Killer Urbex Note: It is important to note that many of these locations are in an extremely delicate state. Specifics on the locations are not given purposefully to ensure the abandoned places in Michigan stay as vandalism and destruction-free as possible. Take only photos, leave only footprints.
Many of Michigan’s abandoned places have been demolished or renovated. The creepy Northville Regional Psychiatric Hospital once drew local teenagers to its grounds for dare missions no longer stands today and Traverse City’s Northern Michigan Asylum has been reimagined into an area filled with little shops and cafes.
For many cities across the state the cost of demolition is just too high. Instead, abandoned ruins still stand waiting to be explored by urban explorers or bewildered Europeans. Here’s our list of the ten best abandoned places in Michigan you’ve just got to see while they are still standing.
Interested in venturing outside Michigan? Here are a few guides to surrounding states that will be helpful in your explorations outside of the wonderful abandoned places in Michigan:
- Our Guide to the 10 Best Abandoned Places in Wisconsin 2021
- The 10 Best Abandoned Places In Indiana For 2021 And Beyond
- The 10 Best Abandoned Places In Ohio For 2021 And Beyond
- Finding the 10 Best Abandoned Places in Minnesota In 2021
Conversely, if you’re interested in sticking around the Detroit area, we highly recommend our in-depth guide Covering 10 Crazy Abandoned Places in Detroit: Detroit Urbex.
If you have a specific location from the list below that you would like to immediately get more information about, click the links in the list to snap straight to that abandoned places in Michigan location.
- Packard Automotive Plant
- Sugar Loaf Ski Lodge
- St. Agnes Catholic Church
- Prehistoric Forest Amusement Park
- Woodward Avenue Presbyterian Church
- United Artist Theater Detroit
- The Francisco Morazan Shipwreck
- Ruins of the Waugoshance Light Station
- Eloise Psychiatric Hospital
- The Fisher Body Plant 21
- Southwestern High School
- Charles Kettering High School
- Detroit Highland Theater
- Dorias Velodrome and Soap Box Derby Track
- Northville Psychiatric Hospital
It is important when considering abandoned places in Michigan to know the basics of Michigan trespassing laws. Luckily, we have developed a massive guide to trespassing laws in all 50 states. For laws that specifically relate to Michigan, please click here.
The Best Abandoned Places in Michigan
Packard Automotive Plant
During its time the Packard Automotive Plant was considered the most advanced auto production facility. It was built between 1903 and 1911 and occupies 40 acres of land. The plant is now one of the largest abandoned buildings in the world.
The plant was designed by famous Michigan Architect Albert Khan and was an excellent representation of traditional Detroit architecture and style of the time. Khan would go onto design buildings for GM, Ford and the University of Michigan.
The plant ceased operations in 1958 and now sits as a relic of the past reminding the world of Detroit’s period of Industrial might. Other businesses have operated out of the plant from time to time. It has also been a location used in many movies including It Follows and Apocalypse Nerf earning it a bit more attention and added security measures around the facility.
The Packard Automotive plant remains one of the most recognized buildings in Detroit. In 2012 a Peruvian developer purchased the complex. The future of the plant is still unclear but the stated goal is to redevelop the plant into a mixed residential and commercial property.
Sugar Loaf Ski Lodge
Just outside Traverse City, Michigan lies an abandoned but preserved ski resort. Much of the ski lodge has been preserved with even the tiniest details still intact. Sugar Loaf Mountain closed in 2000 because of poor management and increased competition from nearby resorts and the ledge was abandoned.
Though the ski lodge is abandoned it is far from empty. The lodge is filled with original paperwork, lift tickets, and all the ins and outs of a real working business. Yes, the lodge was abandoned but it feels like a snapshot lost in time. The Sugar Loaf Lodge is a true gem to visit on your next urbex trip to Michigan.
The complex comprises a ski lodge building, a hotel, pool, and a deserted skill hill completed with hanging ski lifts. Walking around the main hotel, you almost expect people to appear with skis and suitcases in hand.
Peek through the windows and you’ll find the beds are all made, trash is emptied. Most of the windows are shattered and peaking in is the best way to get a glimpse of the interior rooms. The floor and countertops are covered in a thick layer of dust, insulation, and other materials coming from the ceiling.
Be sure to take a climb to the top of the mountain itself. It’s worth the hike. At the top of the mountain, you’ll have great views of Little TraverseLake and Good Harbor Bay. Recently the resort was purchased and there are plans in place to reopen it again one but for now, it sits as one of the best abandoned places in Michigan. Make your way to see it before it’s too late.
St. Agnes Catholic Church
When St. Agnes Catholic Church began construction after the turn of the century there were only a handful of houses in the area. By the time construction was finished in 1924, the neighborhood had transformed into a densely populated area with the church located at the heart of the community. The church only took about two years to be built but this goes to show how quickly the population of Detroit was growing during the beginning of the 20th century.
By the mid- 20th century the church had grown to include three priests, 22 nuns, and 180 students enrolled in the Catholic girls’ school on the church grounds. It was during this time that things would take a turn for the worst for the community, and the church.
When the police raided an after-hours drinking establishment nearby it stirred up tension and civil unrest. Many of the buildings along 12th Street were burned to the ground but St. Agnes Catholic Church went relatively unharmed.
The community never fully recovered from these events and people began to move. In 1986 there were only 162 families in attendance and the Detroit Archdiocese put the building up for sale, but the purchasers never took control of the building and allowed it to fall into ruin.
Prehistoric Forest Amusement Park
Established in 1963 the Prehistoric Forest was a roadside attraction in the 1960s. The amusement park lured tourists in with life-size fiberglass dinosaur statues, a man-made active volcano, a safari train and it’s famous 400-foot tall Jungle Rapids Water Slide.
Visitors would come to the park for a Jurassic Park type experience long before the movie franchise came onto the scene. The park also provided educational activities such as its many areas of interactive fossil digging for tourists to enjoy. Eventually, the park itself went the way of the dinosaurs and closed its doors.
The Prehistoric Amusement Park fell victim to new interstate traffic patterns that rerouted traffic away from so many similar small roadside attractions in between major cities. Business declined in the 80s and the park managed to stay open until 2002 when it finally closed its doors.
The park is now added to the list of abandoned places in Michigan. Time and the element have eroded the dinosaur statues, but vandalism has played a larger role in their decline. While the park was still in operation in the 1980s, a few of the statues went missing and were found in front of a nearby high school. There are security cameras fixed on the remaining statues to keep them on-premise.
In 2018, the park’s waterfalls and caverns started to experience structural issues and demolition was requested. The owner has stated his interest in revitalizing the park to its former glory days but so far the details laid out on the project are vague.
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Woodward Avenue Presbyterian Church
The Woodward Avenue Presbyterian Church in Detroit, Michigan was built in 1911 in the Gothic Revival style by architect Sidney Badgley. This English Gothic style church is faced with rough rock and trimmed with contrasting limestone.
The massive church measures 184 feet by 104 feet and it is notable for its large stone facade and beautiful traceried stained glass windows. It features a two-story educational wing that was built separately but at the same time right at the rear of the church building. A lantern dome is raised high above the roofline and was used as the source of light for the large auditorium.
In 1908 the Detriot Presbyterians recognized the need for a church to serve congregants in the northern Woodward side of town. A congregation was organized and services began being held in 1908. At that time the church had 163 members. Rev. Sherman Divine was the church’s first minister. He embarked on the construction of the church which cost about $100,000. Construction began in 1910 and the next year the church was dedicated and open to the public.
In 1921 membership surpassed 2,200. However, the 1950s were not kind to urban cities like Detroit. Many of the church’s congregants left Detroit for the suburbs and church membership dwindled. In 1981 Woodward Presbyterian Church merged with Covenant Congregant but still had less than 50 members combined.
For quite a while the church was used by the Abyssinia Church of God in Christ. In 1982 the building was listed on the National Register of Historic Places. Then finally in 2010, the church was abandoned because it had fallen into such a state of disrepair. Recently the property has been purchased by a new owner seeking to turn the church into a center for the homeless. There’s no telling what they have planned for the property just yet so be sure to mark this site down on your list of must-see abandoned places in Michigan while you can still see it.
United Artist Theater Detroit
The United Artists Theater was once part of Detroit’s thriving downtown scene. Today it stands as of the grandest abandoned places in Michigan. In the early 1920’s United Artist began building theaters in major cities across the U.S. to distribute its pictures to the public.
The United Artist Theater in Detroit cost $3 million for construction and was considered to be a masterpiece. The Theater was designed by C. Howard Crane and boasted 2,000 seats. It was located next door to the Leland Hotel on the bustling new side of town. The building was constructed in the Spanish Gothic style but borrowed elements from Persian, Grecian, and Indian styles as well.
It quickly became Detroit’s premier first-run movie theater. Gone With the Wind hosted its premiere here in 1940. Over the years, the theater had many renovations and made way for a wider screen. But by the late ’60s, people were steering clear of Detroit’s downtown districts. Like other theaters, the United Artist Theater began showing exploitation and pornographic films to stay in business. Finally, in 1971 the theater closed its doors.
During the 1990s, The Detroit Tigers baseball club began planning a new stadium downtown which would have required the theater to be demolished. The location proved to be too small and the plans eventually fell through. Years of vacancy have taken a toll on the theater.
The roof has deteriorated causing major water damage. The marque was removed in 2006 after part of it collapsed onto the sidewalk. Since then some work has begun to restore the building. It has been stabilized however it still stands in poor condition today. Check out the United Artists Theater soon before it is demolished or redeveloped.
The Francisco Morazan Shipwreck
Off the coast of South Manitou Island lies the remains of the SS Francisco Morazan. Launched in 1922 this steel-hulled Liberian fighter was sailing from Chicago to the Netherlands by way of the St. Lawrence Seaway in November of 1960.
On November 28th the freighter was buffeted by northwestern winds with speeds up to 40-miles per hour and snow. It ran aground just off South Manitou Island, part of the Sleeping Bear Dunes National Lakeshore.
Everyone on board the ship was successfully rescued but this ship eventually sank. The rusted hull of the ship still lies here today and is partially visible from the island. This is a local favorite spot for scuba divers, explorers, and seabirds alike.
Ruins of the Waugoshance Light Station
During the summer of 1943, the waters of Lake Michigan became a U.S. Navy training ground. Two paddlewheel aircraft carriers certified class after class of career pilots. But just to the north right around the Canadian border was another more secretive training ground near Waugoshance Point.
The Waugoshance Lighthouse was built in 1851 and used to help ships steer clear of dangerous reefs and shoals. During the Second World War it served as a beacon for experimental radio-controlled drones. Codenamed STAG-1, this highly secretive program came as a response to Japanese Kamikaze attacks.
Engineers outfitted twin-engine planes with primitive radio receivers that connected to the steering mechanisms. They had a camera in the nose of the plane and a hydraulic unit that was controlled by radio impulses to steer the craft. Pilots flying a “mothership” several miles behind would steer the drone over the target. After dropping a powerful 2,000 pound bomb the drone would crash into the water.
During the development and practice phases of the operation their target was the Waugoshance Lighthouse. Most of the bombs fell harmlessly into the water but at least one bomb exploded close enough to set off a fire in the lighthouse. The abandoned lighthouse was forgotten until 2011 when it was transferred from the Coast Guard to the Waugoshance Lighthouse Preservation Society that is currently restoring the lighthouse.
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Eloise Psychiatric Hospital
Located in Westland Michigan the Eloise Psychiatric Hospital was a large complex named after Eloise Dickerson Davock – the daughter of Detroit’s postmaster. It was in operation from 1839 to early 1982. The hospital started out as a poor house and farm but eventually morphed into an asylum, sanatorium, and hospital.
In its prime, it consisted of 78 buildings on 902 acres of land with 10,000 patients and 2,000 staff members. It was the largest psychiatric facility in the United States. Unfortunately, only 5 out of the 78 buildings still remain to this day. The Eloise cemetery also remains. Many of the buildings burned to the ground in a fire in 2019.
Founded in 1832 as the Wayne County Poor House it was located two miles from the Detroit city limits. By 1834 the poor house was in bad condition and it along with its land was purchased. The Black Horse Tavern, which served as a stagecoach stop between Detroit and Chicago, was located on the property. In 1839 the 35 residents were transferred from the poorhouse to a new one in Nankin Township.
The Black Tavern became the keeper’s quarters and an A-frame building was put up on the property to house inmates. The complex had its own police and fire departments along with a railroad and trolley system. It included a bakery, an amusement hall, a laundry facility, a post office, and a power plant. It even had its own farm with dairy cows and tobacco curing buildings.
Patients came down from Detroit to have x-rays done at the facility. It also housed the first kidney dialysis unit in the state of Michigan and pioneered music therapy. Staff also used shock therapy, hydrotherapy, and insulin therapy to treat the patients.
During the Great Depression, the facility housed 10,000 residents but slowly over the next decade, the population decreased. The farm ceased and many of the buildings were vacated in 1958. The last patients were transferred out in 1982 when the state of Michigan took over the complex. The general hospital was closed in 1986.
Inventor Elijah McCoy may be its most famous former resident. He spent a year prior to his death as a patient in the Eloise Infirmary. There were other well-known people who died at Eloise including several baseball players. Among them are Jul Kustus, Larry LeJeune, Charlie Krause, and Marty Kavanagh. Musician Horace Flinders was also a patient and received music therapy.
Today the land that once belonged to Eloise has been developed into a strip mall, golf course, and condominiums. The only building that is still being used for psychiatric admissions. The firehouse and powerplant are still standing in decay on the grounds. The bakery was damaged heavily in a fire caused by arson in 2016 but it’s charred ruins still stand. There are plans in place to remove the rest of the ruins from the property so it is a good idea to see these abandoned places in Michigan soon before they are gone.
The Fisher Body Plant 21
The Fisher Body Company was formed in 1908 by Albert Fisher and his nephews Charles and Fred. Initially, it produced bodies for both carriage and the budding automobile industry. They dropped the carriage line in 1911. At the time making and autobody was a complex mixture of shaped wood and metal. This construction process took the craftsmanship of skilled tradesmen to complete. Most auto manufactures found it much simpler to outsource this work. By 1910 Fisher was constructing automotive bodies for Cadillac, Ford, Studebaker, and Hudson.
To meet the increasing demand for auto bodies, Fisher expanded operations to over 40 plants in the Detroit area. Body plant number 21 was built in 1919 on Piquette Street in Detroit just around the corner from Henry Ford’s original workshop. The six-story building was designed by architect Albery Kahn. It featured reinforced concrete and floor to ceiling windows to allow natural light to come into space. In 1917, General Motors bought a controlling interest in the company.
A series of violent strikes broke out at the General Motors and Fisher plants across the country in the late 1930s, bringing construction to a halt. Like many other automotive factories, Fisher retooled its shop during the Second World War for military production. They manufactured parts for military planes, anti-aircraft guns, and tanks. After the war, Fisher manufactured parts for buses, ambulances, and limousines. During this time the Fisher name began to recede from public view.
In 1982, General Motors announced they would close the body plant and move production of limousine parts to Flint. Eventually, Carter Color Coast Company purchased the lot and used it for industrial painting, however, its operation was short lived. The company filed for bankruptcy in 1993 and abandoned the plant. Ownership of the site reverted to the city of Detroit in 2000.
The Fisher Body Plant has an ideal location but the site has been severely contaminated rendering the property useless as is. Asbestos waste, lead, and other hazardous materials contaminate the soil and concrete from a lifetime of industrial use. The Environmental Protection Agency began working on the site in 2008 removing and disposing of large amounts of soil and contaminated equipment. The flooring was also removed for good measure as well as sections of the concrete and underground storage tanks. Despite their best efforts, the site is still considered to be contaminated to this day.
The building itself is in a steady state of decline, beaten down by the natural elements. At least one fire has damaged the first floor of the building and the cement is being eaten away by ice. The City of Detroit is trying to find investors or developers who would like to renovate the site but so far there haven’t been any interested parties. For as little as $300,000, you could own some of the greatest abandoned buildings in Michigan and a piece of American history with a beautiful view of the city.
Southwestern High School (Detroit)
For nearly a century, Southwestern High School served the students of Detroit’s Boynton-Oakwood Heights, Delray and Springwells neighborhoods. The three-story brick building opened in the fall of 1922, with a campus that included an auditorium, gymnasium, swimming pool and track.
As Detroit’s population swelled over the mid-20th century, thousands of students passed through its halls and gathered in its classrooms. The school received national attention in 1989, when a photographer from the Detroit Free Press spent 40 weeks documenting daily life at Southwestern and went on to win the Pulitzer Prize Feature Photography Award for his work.
Around this same time, residents of Detroit were leaving the city in droves, and the school’s census dropped along with the city’s. By February 2012, when the school district announced its impending closure in June of that year, it was one of the lowest-performing high schools in the state, and its enrollment was less than 600 students—roughly a third of the student body’s size in its peak years.
After its closure, all of the equipment remaining in the building—desks, chairs, books, computers and a wide variety of other academic detritus—was put up for sale in an online auction. Everything that didn’t find a buyer was simply left behind in the abandoned building.
In the decade since its closure, the handful of attempts at repurposing the building have failed, including converting it into a community center and a garment manufacturing facility. Scavengers have removed all scraps of metal from the school’s wiring and plumbing systems, and fires started by vandals have caused additional damage to the aging structure. Since 2017, the building has been the site of intermittent training sessions by the U.S. Border Police, some of which may involve live gunfire, so use extreme caution if you plan to visit.
Charles Kettering High School (Detroit)
As the population of Detroit boomed in the 1950s, voters approved $90 million in funding to build 21 new elementary schools, five junior high schools and three high schools to replace existing aging facilities.
One of these new high schools was intended to serve the city’s east side, where many of the Motor City’s automobile manufacturing plants and their employees were located. The school would be named after the late automotive engineer Charles Kettering, whose design of the modern electrical starter revolutionized the industry.
Construction began in 1961, but labor disputes and cost increases delayed completion until 1965, by which time the massive new building was already too small for the skyrocketing student population it was intended to serve.
The first phase of the facility consisted of two-story wings for classrooms joined at their center by the library and cafeteria. The second phase, completed in 1969, added new classroom space and a gymnasium, although construction of the planned swimming pool and auditorium were pushed back to the planned third phase.
In 1970, Kettering High School was thrust into the middle of a high-profile school desegregation case. Nearly 9 out of 10 Kettering students were black, while the student body at neighboring Denby High School was 93 percent white. A court-ordered integration effort redirected some of Denby’s white students to Kettering, sparking protests around the area.
Meanwhile, the NAACP filed a lawsuit to halt all school construction until funding was more equitably invested in majority-minority schools. As a result, Kettering’s $4.3 million expansion project (which finally included the pool) was delayed until 1975, and its performing arts center wasn’t added until the final expansion project in 1978, which included a 1,200-seat auditorium, improvements to the cafeteria and the installation of a 14-foot tall, 15-ton concrete “K” in front of the building.
Not long after the dedication of the new auditorium in 1981, the city and its schools entered a period of decline and depopulation that would ultimately last for decades. Many of the industrial jobs that had sustained Detroit’s residents had disappeared, and sharp increases in violent crime sent many white families fleeing to the exurbs. Gangs began to infiltrate the local high schools, and Kettering’s quarterback was fatally shot in 1989 after being targeted by gang members for his jacket and Nike sneakers.
In 2010, Detroit Public Schools announced that Kettering would close its doors due to low enrollment and transfer its remaining students to nearby Southeastern High School. That decision was temporarily reversed due to concerns about conflicts between gangs at the rival schools, but the school was ultimately shuttered in June 2012.
Two years later, the district announced plans to convert the property into the Kettering Urban Agricultural Campus, an urban farm that would be used to grow fresh produce for use in the schools. Unfortunately, the district’s dire financial situation prevented the project from getting off the ground, and vandals have since stripped the vacant, deteriorating building of most metal and other materials of value.
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Highland Theater (Highland Park)
First known as the Highland Park Theater when it opened in 1915, this historic structure was designed by Detroit architect B.C. Wetzell, whose other works included the DeLuxe and Arcade theaters. With an original capacity of around 600, the Highland hosted live vaudeville shows until the dawning of the cinematic age. As the neighborhood around it began to decline in the 1960s, the theater rebranded as the Paris in 1967 and began showing adult films exclusively. It remained an adult theater when its name changed to the Hiland Arts Theater two years later.
With the addition of a catwalk in 1981, the facility was transformed into a strip club known as Fancy Pants. Not long after the club opened, its owner was arrested on charges of indecency, with county prosecutors alleging Fancy Pants was part of a prostitution operation. When a man was fatally beaten with a baseball bat outside the club in 1982, Fancy Pants shut down permanently.
Though the building has been boarded up since 1983, a 2011 fire at the neighboring furniture store caused structural damage to the theater, providing a point of entry for vagrants, vandals and scrappers. The building was quickly stripped of all items of value, including its original seating.
Since then, the roof has caved in, leaving the interior of the historic building exposed to the elements. Now in an advanced state of physical decay and surrounded by a troubled neighborhood, eventual demolition of the once-grand theater seems all but inevitable.
Dorias Velodrome and Soap Box Derby Track
This outdoor velodrome was the vision of Michigan cycling legend Mike Walden, who began the campaign for its construction in 1967 with the goal of completing it in time to host the 1969 U.S. Cycling National Track Championships.
Thanks to the donation of land and other resources by the Chrysler Corporation, Walden’s dream became a reality, and after the successful inaugural event, cyclists in the region had a world-class facility at which to train and race, the most notable being Frankie Andreu, who led the U.S. Postal Service cycling team from 1998 to 2000.
The 250-meter track featured 45-degree banked concrete walls, with pads specially designed to withstand the punishing cold of Midwest winters and the baking heat of the summer sun. However, the track wasn’t built to survive the abuse it faced from the residents of the rough neighborhood in which it was located.
Locals used the infield as a dumping ground for derelict cars, old tires, rusted appliances and other junk, and it wasn’t unusual to see Detroit police officers pursuing accused criminals across the track as cyclists attempted to fit in their practice sessions. Most damaging to the track’s surface were the unofficial auto racing sessions that amateur drivers held there; the concrete pads buckled and cracked under the weight of the speeding cars until they could no longer safely support the cyclists for whom the track was designed.
The track hosted its final cycling event—the Michigan State Championships—in 1990, and the facility was abandoned shortly thereafter. The city determined that the cost to rebuild the track would exceed $700,000, and the government instead opted to construct a new outdoor velodrome in the more affluent northern suburb of Rochester Hills.
The Dorais Park Velodrome was abandoned until 2010, when a volunteer group cleared out much of the debris and overgrowth that had consumed the facility and planted trees around its perimeter and installed an urban garden in the infield.
Northville Psychiatric Hospital (Detroit)
In 1952, the 453-acre campus of the new Northville Psychiatric Hospital welcomed its first patients. Built to replace the state’s network of aging, overcrowded inpatient psychiatric facilities, the 20-building hospital complex was among the top mental health treatment centers in the nation at the time.
It offered a variety of recreational activities to patients, with its own gymnasium, swimming pool, movie theater and bowling alley. The hospital also incorporated art, music and craft instruction into its therapeutic approach, offering music lessons, theater classes and home economics and mechanics courses. Patients also worked in the hospital’s laundry and kitchen facilities and tended the grounds of the vast property.
In the 1970s, budget cuts across the state mental health system led to facility closures, and recreational therapies were exchanged for pharmaceutical treatments. The population at Northville swelled to more than 1,000 patients, far exceeding its intended capacity of 650 and forcing some patients to be housed in the gymnasium until more permanent arrangements could be made.
In 1983, the Detroit News published a series of articles exposing the “appalling” conditions at Northville, which included patients sleeping in hallways and spaced out in front of TVs, with few opportunities for therapeutic treatment or mental stimulation. Conditions continued to decline over the next two decades, with frequent allegations of physical and sexual assault, neglect, theft and other crimes.
Multiple patients died during struggles with hospital staff or fights with their peers. Escapes were common, with patients often found hiding in neighborhoods near the hospital campus or visiting local stores and restaurants.
In 2002, the state finally decided to close the aging, run-down facility in order to redevelop the comparatively valuable parcel of land on which it sat. The last remaining patients were transferred to other hospitals in May 2003, and efforts to sell the property began. Several buyers backed out of the transaction after discovering that the land was contaminated with arsenic, barium, lead, oil and medical waste and the buildings filled with asbestos. The site finally sold in 2006 for $31 million—less than half of the state’s original valuation of $70 million.
The developer that purchased the Northville grounds announced plans for an $800 million multiuse development that would feature 1,000 single-family homes, condominiums, senior housing, offices, restaurants, parks and a school, but local residents rallied in opposition to the proposal based on its size and scope. Several years of court battles followed, and the developer instead began logging operations on the property’s densely-forested eastern side, sparking further objections from area activists.
In 2012, Northville Township brokered a deal with the developer, purchasing 75 percent of the property for use as a nature preserve and activity park while allowing the developer to do as it wished with the remaining land. The city’s long-range plan includes construction of a community center, mountain bike trails, a skate park and other amenities, but lack of available funding has resulted in slow progress on the project.
As a result, many of the hospital buildings are still standing, albeit in decrepit and dangerous condition. Collapsing roofs and broken windows have left the structures vulnerable to damage from rain, wind, snow and ice as well as wildlife invasions, and vandals and explorers have also left their marks on the long-abandoned psychiatric facility.
Our Final Thoughts on Abandoned Places in Michigan
It’s true. Michigan is a treasure trove of history that is just waiting to be explored. Whether you are an urban explorer, history buff, architect, or just fascinated with old buildings there is so much to see and learn about through abandoned places in Michigan.
If you are interested in visiting one or more of these sites you should not put it off. We don’t know how long these abandoned places in Michigan will still be standing as is before they are demolished or renovated by developers. As always, stay safe and happy exploring!
Those who are into urban exploration in the Michigan state area, and wanting to explore abandoned places in Michigan, should get comfortable with Michigan trespassing laws. Luckily, in the state of Michigan, the laws are easy to understand and are pretty cut and dry.
For more about obtaining permission to explore abandoned places in Michigan, check out our guide Explore Abandoned Buildings: How To Get Permission.