- [Narrator] Coming up on a special holiday edition of "One Detroit," we're taking you to some interesting places that are truly Detroit.

We'll go inside the iconic Michigan Central Station to see its amazing restoration.

Plus, we'll take you to a unique spot in Detroit where you can enjoy out outdoor adventures inside.

Also ahead, a look at the birthplace of Henry Ford's Model T. And actress CCH Pounder talks about her personal art collection on display at the Wright Museum.

It's all coming up next on "One Detroit."

- [Narrator] From Delta faucets to Bear paint, Masco Corporation is proud to deliver products that enhance the way consumers all over the world experience and enjoy their living spaces.

Masco.

Serving Michigan communities since 1929.

Support also provided by the Cynthia & Edsel Ford Fund for Journalism at Detroit PBS.

- [Narrator] DTE Foundation is a proud sponsor of Detroit PBS.

Among the state's largest foundations committed to Michigan-focused giving, we support organizations that are doing exceptional work in our state.

Learn more at dtefoundation.com.

- [Narrator] Nissan Foundation.

And viewers like you.

(upbeat music) - [Narrator] Just ahead on "One Detroit."

It's the 4th of July, the kids are out of school, and summer is in full swing.

We'll give you some ideas on where to go for a truly Detroit experience.

We'll explore the Outdoor Adventure Center and all the activities it offers.

Plus, we'll take a look at Detroit's automotive history inside the Ford Piquette Avenue Plant Museum.

And the Wright Museum hosts an exhibit of artworks belonging to acclaimed actress CCH Pounder.

But first up, a truly Detroit landmark is now open for tours on Fridays and Saturdays through August.

Michigan Central Station reopened with much fanfare last month after undergoing a six-year renovation by Ford Motor Company.

The former hub for train travelers sat vacant for more than 30 years.

Once a symbol of the city's decay, the iconic building now symbolizes the future of mobility and innovation.

"One Detroit" took a tour.

(upbeat music) For three decades, the Michigan Central train station sat vacant in Detroit, falling into deep decay.

Then in 2018, Ford Motor Company purchased the station.

Ford invited "One Detroit" to Corktown to see the transformation Michigan Central Station has undergone.

- Everything has been restored to, as best possible, to what its original condition is.

Often talk now about that the building is, in some ways, in its most pristine condition, in some ways, ever.

- We took out 3.5 million gallons of water from the station over the first 18 months.

Most of that water was in the basement, but some of it just ran inside into various rooms and over the columns like this, that led to this sort of wonderful grooved feeling.

- [Narrator] That feeling captures the station's history, spanning more than a century.

- The station was originally designed by the same architects who did New York's Grand Central Station.

- Building started occupancy in 1913.

The station last passenger rail stopped in 1988, then, you know, sat vacant for 36 years.

- [Narrator] The clock position between the Grand Hall and the South Concourse is a prime example of how the restoration aims to merge the past and present.

- This historic clock was able to be reproduced because we had original components from the clock itself.

Not the entirety of it, but components of it.

And then working with those historic wood pieces plus the original drawings, we were able to recreate the beautiful clock that will keep us on track as we move forward into the next century.

- This portion of the arcade here will be activated with experiential retail, food and beverage.

Things like that will start in the fall, with activity like that happening in the building.

- [Narrator] When you approach the station from the park and make your way through the main entry doors, you'll be greeted by the Grand Hall.

- [Josh] Grand Hall is obviously not just probably the most spectacular space here in Detroit, but certainly one of them in the country, if not the world.

- It was lined with oak benches that were inset into the floor here.

And you can see remnants of those and what they were.

This sort of Guastavino tiled, arched ceiling is magnificent.

It is clay tile, and there's 29,000 tiles up there.

And that's over eight miles of grout.

- [Narrator] When the station was purchased, the Grand Hall's windows were inoperable.

The cast iron rosettes and filigrees flanking the windows were removed or decayed.

The few that were salvaged were 3D scanned and printed at the Ford Manufacturing Lab.

Before the last stop on our tour, we made our way to the South Concourse.

On its surface, it's almost identical to the way it looked in the 1940s, when it serviced nearly 4,000 people a day.

But below its surface is modern technology.

- We have, for example, in here, in floor cooling as part of how we will heat and cool this vast space.

- We also, in the selection of glass throughout, worked on selecting the Wright types of glass to reduce cooling loads.

And so the building is going to be a really future-forward, managed machine to keep these sort of costs low and be the most sustainable as possible.

- [Narrator] Amid the Restoration, Ford set out to honor the station's heyday, but also the time it sat vacant.

One example is the graffiti on station walls.

- It's also an important chapter in the building's history.

In other cases, we've preserved some of the work itself.

Not connected to the walls anymore, but we will figure out how and where we can exhibit those or incorporate them into the design of spaces within the building.

- Has there been thought given to how everything that's going on here is gonna be impacting the greater area, the businesses around here, the neighborhoods around here, the people who've been here?

- We have extensive relationships with communities around us, on all sides, and extensive relationships with the business community.

We are very proud of generating a robust amount of business for local businesses.

- [Narrator] Part of the goal for Michigan Central Station's revival is to be a global example of what major projects like this can be to the people and places around them.

- We want this to be an epicenter of talent, of innovation, of thought, of leadership, that pulls together creators, community, innovators, leaders, you name it, into what is really a model for elsewhere and unique.

And not just unique in the Detroit context, but in a national one and international context.

- [Narrator] And you can take a self-guided tour of Michigan Central on Fridays from 5:00 PM to 9:00 PM, and on Saturdays from 10:00 AM until 5:00 PM, through August 31st.

Now let's turn to another truly Detroit venue.

The Outdoor Adventure Center is located along the Detroit Riverfront and offers fun activities like virtual kayaking, snowmobiling, and ATVing.

The center is run by the Michigan Department of Natural Resources, and it entertains and educates visitors by bringing the state's outdoor activities indoors.

"One Detroit" contributor Sarah Zientarski visited the center to learn more about the unique experiences it offers residents and visitors.

(upbeat music) (upbeat music) - The Outdoor Adventure Center, such a cool place.

Can you just tell us, like, what is the concept behind this center?

- Basically, we do bring the Up North downtown.

So everything that you can see in the beautiful Up North, we try to bring it here and expose people to our natural resources throughout the state.

- Why is it important to bring that Up North of Michigan to the city of Detroit?

- I think part of the reason is because we wanna make sure that everybody knows what we have to offer in this beautiful state.

And so for, you know, people who grew up in the city and don't travel much outside of the city, they can explore what we have to offer.

And we hope that they take the chance and go and visit our beautiful state parks throughout the state.

- And just what the State of Michigan has available.

Because I'm sure a lot of people come here and think, "Oh, I didn't know we had mines.

I didn't know that we had sand dunes."

You know, how do you see people come here, and their minds kind of open up to all the beauty that we have here in the State of Michigan?

- That's the great part about working here, is that we see that inspiration.

And we see people ask more questions and ask where they can find more information.

You know, where can I get my fishing license?

Do you have any suggestions about good fishing spots?

You know, that is really exciting, to see that people, you know, make that connection and then wanna know more about how to explore.

- [Sara] When people come to the Outdoor Adventure Center, what can they expect as they walk through the doors?

- They can expect to feel like they're outside, which a lot of people, you know, before they know what we are, they're surprised that it's all inside.

But really, you know, when you're inside, you feel like you're outside.

- What are the hands-on exhibits that people can explore?

- It's actually more than just hands-on.

It's full-body exhibits.

So we have fishing, which actually is simulated to make it feel like you're catching a fish.

We have a snowmobile that you can ride, an ATV you can ride, bikes you can ride, and then the tree, of course.

That you can climb inside to the top of the tree and peek out and see, you know, all the branches.

And actually, in the tree there's birds and owls and bugs and all kinds of nature that you can explore inside the tree.

- How do you inspire people to go out to the state parks?

- That's actually one of our new exhibits this year.

We have an interactive state park map, which is conveniently located in our campground exhibit.

And so you can, you know, touch and see the entire map of Michigan and explore what those campgrounds have to offer.

And other, you know, state parks.

It's not just campgrounds.

And another thing, that we do a lot of fun activities and educational promotions for the state parks.

Another thing that we do is we have a State Park Madness competition, which is on Facebook.

You can also vote in person.

But we put the brackets on our window so that people can vote for their favorite state park.

And then at our DNR Parks and Recreation in-service, we're going to present the trophy to the winners.

- How long has the Outdoor Adventure Center been around?

And how have you expanded through the years?

- We opened in July of 2015, and every year we do add something new.

So we're always looking for ways to expand what we offer.

And I think that's really another exciting thing about working here, is, you know, exploring, well, you know, what can we add?

And working with the wonderful people and the rest of the DNR to see what ideas they have.

Like, right now we're working with forestry to expand all of our forestry exhibits.

So it's really exciting.

We have a very unique building that is one of a kind in the country.

There's no other DNR that operates a building like this.

So definitely come and stop by and see what Michigan has to offer.

(upbeat music) - [Narrator] The Ford Piquette Avenue Plant in Detroit's Milwaukee Junction neighborhood is a major part of the Motor City's legacy.

The site is the birthplace of the Model T, invented by Henry Ford.

The plant has been transformed into a museum to preserve its rich automotive history.

"One Detroit's" Chris Jordan toured the museum with president and COO Jill Woodward.

(upbeat music) - The Ford Piquette Avenue Plant is really one of the most important historic sites for the automotive industry in the world.

It is really the origin point of the Motor City.

So when we ask ourselves, you know, where did Detroit get its start as the Motor City, it happened right here in Milwaukee Junction.

This is one of the world's oldest surviving automotive factories.

And so we're just thrilled to be able to share it with the public.

This is sort of quintessential Detroit.

When you think about what's iconic to, say, Philadelphia, you think of, you know, Independence Hall in Boston.

You think of the Old North Church.

To us here, we think of the Ford Piquette Plant as completely iconic to the Motor City.

Henry Ford built the Ford Piquette Plant in 1904.

He was here until 1910.

And this is where he envisioned and built the very first Model T, which we know is the car that put the world on wheels.

We actually have Henry Ford's secret experimental room rebuilt here in the museum on the third floor.

And it's holy ground for a lot of people, to see the spot where that vehicle, the very first one, was made.

And we had an industrial archeologist come and help us rebuild that exhibit so it looks exactly as it did in Henry Ford's time.

And you gotta think, this vehicle went on to be in production for 19 years.

Over 15 million were made.

And when you come here, you can see, for instance, number 220 that was made right here in this building, that's our red Model T downstairs, in 1909.

The museum that you see today is the effort of several decades of volunteer labor.

We have dozens and dozens of volunteers.

But the museum that you see today really came together around 2017, when we accepted this very important collection of cars from the Porter Foundation.

We have over 65 very rare vehicles here, including one of the only collections of Henry Ford's letter cars, those are all the models leading up to the T that you can see anywhere in the world, in the place where they were made.

Henry Ford was interested in making lightweight, inexpensive cars for the everyday person.

All of his competitors at the time were making big, heavy, expensive cars.

So he really came up with the Model N, which was innovative for so many reasons, before the Model T. The Model N actually made him a millionaire, before the Model T. But by the time he gets to the Model T, he's really perfected ways to make cars lightweight, strong.

He transforms everyday life and sparks the movement from farms to factories.

I feel like we've lost a little bit the significance of Milwaukee Junction.

When we think about this neighborhood, you know, it just doesn't roll off the tongue, even for long-time, lifelong Detroiters.

But this is exactly where the Motor City got its start.

Right here.

Because of the railroads.

And the Erie Canal had just opened, and there were minerals coming down from Northern Michigan on the Great Lake steamships.

So much was happening here.

They were making stoves and carriages and bicycles.

So there was all that innovation and entrepreneurship happening that really set the stage for what Henry Ford was gonna do right here in this building.

There were over 25 manufacturers within a five-mile radius of this plant, where we're standing today.

So it's really hard to imagine the activity that would've been here.

Not just automakers, but also auto suppliers.

It was really the Silicon Valley of its day.

The museum is open from Wednesday through Sunday, from 10:00 AM to 4:00.

And we have optional guided tours at 10, noon, and 2, but I highly, highly recommend taking the docent tour.

Our docents are incredibly expert in their knowledge of all things Ford, Ford Motor Company, and early automotive history.

And it really is like stepping back in time with them through the information they impart.

When we think about Detroit and what it means to the rest of the world, I think our contributions are really summed up by places like this, that contain our history.

Our history that really went on to change the world.

The Model T really changed the way we live and drive today.

It enabled people a new level of freedom, to be able to leave their small-town neighborhood and travel across the country or the world.

Prior to that, people didn't really go beyond 25 miles of their home.

So the Model T was very freeing.

It was freeing for women.

Model T's took doctors and dentists across the country.

It opened up the national parks for camping, which Henry Ford and his friend Thomas Edison popularized.

The ramifications of this vehicle are just really untold.

So to have the birthplace of that vehicle here in Detroit preserved by chance and a lot of hard work is really a great gift.

- [Narrator] Another truly Detroit site is hosting a special exhibit featuring art from the private collection of award-winning actress CCH Pounder.

The Charles H. Wright Museum of African American History's "Double ID" exhibit contains 54 works that focus on the identities of black men.

"One Detroit" contributor and "American Black Journal" host Stephen Henderson sat down with pound at the Wright to talk about the exhibit and her love of art.

(upbeat music) - So let's talk about this exhibit.

- Absolutely.

- "Double ID."

It is about black men and the duality, right?

- Yes.

Well, first of all, I should really say that I started off at the Wright with "Queen," which was an all-female show.

And then we talked later on that somebody had mentioned, said, "Well, what about the men?"

- What about the men?

What about us?

- And so I said, "Okay.

Well, the next time I come, we'll do a show on men."

But what I loved about how this was done is that it is couched in the philosophy of W. E. B.

Du Bois, of double consciousness.

And so it was providing paintings that not only were sort of very present on, as you look at them, as you get an idea.

In the moment that you think of double consciousness, you get another idea of what this man may have had to do to present himself in a way that is less threatening one way, as less powerful than he actually is.

And so I thought, "Let's bring up these paintings."

And these were the ones that they chose from my collection.

When somebody approaches me for a museum exhibit, there's a theme, there's something that the curator wants to talk about.

Then when they come, they visit your home, and they choose the pieces.

And now that I see the pieces up, I see that double consciousness.

I see that brutish man that Uthman Wahaab who's behind you, big, and it's the gardener with the shears.

He's just a gardener, but he's massive.

And I can imagine that in certain places where he was walking, he would have to try to make himself quite small so that you see this other person.

- Right.

To disappear, in some ways.

- To disappear in some ways.

Yeah.

And it's how the Wright went about choosing these works.

- So when I walk around and look, I see my grandfather's face, I see my father's face, I see my face, and I see my son's face.

It's remarkable how powerful- - I thank you.

- that is.

- I thank you.

- And as an African-American man, you don't get a chance to do that in many art spaces.

to do that in many, in many art spaces.

- I have to share my first experience with that, It was in Xavier University in sort of a public forum.

And it was in a sort of, what I call, a passage gallery, where students are walking through from one classroom off to another.

Headphones, cell phones, and their books, et cetera.

And to watch these students kind of and have that look of, "Oh my god, that's me, that's me, that's me," it was thrilling.

And that's really what opened my brain to saying, "We cannot just store these and keep them for your own pleasure.

These need to go around the world and be seen by us and really enjoyed by us."

So that was the beginning.

And I realized that even people who would be considered others, who feel like they don't really know African-American people or African-Caribbean people, there is this kind of portal that these paintings provide.

That there is this variety of men, and women, obviously, in the world that you've taken a sort of a one-dimensional look at.

And here's an opportunity to begin to open up your mind to visiting these people.

- [Stephen] Yeah, yeah.

- Making a connection- - Seeing them more fully.

- to see them more fully.

- Yeah.

Yeah.

- Yes.

- Let's talk about this being here in Detroit and at the Wright, which is, of course, a special place in Detroit.

- Well, for me, it's special because Neil Barclay was the first person that said, "You should bring that collection to Detroit," which is fantastic.

And so this is my second time around.

So I feel now, like, Wright is almost like the home for me in terms of my start of showing the works.

And I think Detroit in particular is a type of city that could use an infusion of self.

And so I think this is sort of a good place to come back to.

- Yeah.

So in this part of the exhibit, it's portraits, faces.

The other side is- - More like storytelling.

there's scenes with African men.

And they're quite varied.

I have a sort of political section, what I would call about draft.

Like, African men have been drafted.

Football, drafted for sports.

Drafted to be in service.

Enduring slavery, to be drafted in a particular kind of servitude.

Service that you must render to others.

And so there's that.

And then there are scenes of our colonial past, where there's a wonderful painting, a very large painting of Greg Bailey's, of a barrister or lawyer getting dressed, modern day, still having to put on the powdered wig.

- The wig?

(laughs) - Yes.

And then it's what I call the "Sag God."

It's by Fahamu Pecou.

Which really kind of relates to our very young citizens, with the pants that are well below the waistline, hanging off of the hip and creating a kind of, his own personal god, in a sense.

So sort of reinventing himself the way he wants to see himself.

So there is, again, what I call the rainbow of black men.

And that's available to be seen in the big room.

There's a painting that that's on your right, behind you.

It's a giant head.

And everyone has said, "Oh, you know, is he sleeping?

Is he alive?"

And when I spoke to the artist and said, "What's that giant head about?"

and he said he remembers seeing those giant Olmec stones across Mexico and Central America.

- Oh, wow.

- And that he noticed that between Mexico to the Central America, they became more and more black featured.

- They get darker.

Yeah.

- And so he started to paint these enormous black-featured men.

- Wow.

- And so it was, like, stunning.

I have to say, though, seeing it here in the museum, it sort of fits in.

When I first saw it in his studio, it was like, this is enormous.

- It's too big, right?

- Yeah.

It fits in perfectly.

- Yeah.

Yeah.

That's what museums are for, right?

- Yes, they are.

They really are.

It brings everything into perspective.

It's really beautiful.

(upbeat music) - [Narrator] And you can see the "Double ID" exhibit at the Wright through October 20th.

That'll do it for this week's "One Detroit."

Thanks for watching.

Head to the "One Detroit" website for all the stories we're working on.

Follow us on social media and sign up for our weekly newsletter.

(upbeat music) - [Narrator] From Delta faucets to Bear paint, Masco Corporation is proud to deliver products that enhance the way consumers all over the world experience and enjoy their living spaces.

Masco.

Serving Michigan communities since 1929.

Support also provided by the Cynthia & Edsel Ford Fund for Journalism at Detroit PBS.

- [Narrator] DTE Foundation is a proud sponsor of Detroit PBS.

Among the state's largest foundations committed to Michigan-focused giving, we support organizations that are doing exceptional work in our state.

Learn more at dtefoundation.com.

- [Narrator] Nissan Foundation.

And viewers like you.

(upbeat music) (bright piano music)