Wedding receptions, bridal and baby showers, graduation parties, birthdays, holiday gatherings and funeral luncheons are the core business here, at the scale of a few dozen guests. The building comes furnished with about 90 chairs and ten tables, which gives a realistic idea of the seated size. The venue is the Grass Lake Depot in Whistlestop Park, a restored stone railroad station on Michigan Avenue in the village of Grass Lake, Michigan, between Jackson and Ann Arbor.
Weddings and receptions
Couples usually hold the ceremony outdoors at the garden gazebo, then move inside the depot for the meal and dancing. The gardens also serve for photos and a cocktail hour, and guests can step outside between courses. Rental hours run from 9 a.m. to midnight and include setup and cleanup, so decorators and families have the morning to prepare. The village noise ordinance applies outdoors from 10 p.m., which means the music moves indoors for the end of the evening.
Rooms and capacities
The depot has one main event room inside its stone walls, with space for tables, chairs and a dance floor, plus the gardens and the gazebo outside. The venue supplies eight 60-inch round tables and two 8-foot rectangular tables, each seating six to eight, and about 90 chairs. It does not publish an official capacity, so organizers should confirm their guest count when they ask for a date. The building has air conditioning and heating, Wi-Fi, and accessible restrooms for men and women.
Catering
There is no in-house caterer. Hosts bring their own food and drinks. Alcohol is allowed on a bring-your-own basis once a certificate of liability insurance naming the depot has been emailed, and the booking stays pending until it arrives. The small kitchen has a refrigerator and freezer, a large microwave and coffee makers, but no stove or oven, so hot food should arrive ready to serve. Linens are not supplied, and the venue suggests booking them from local rental companies at least two weeks ahead. Trash bags, paper towels and restroom supplies are provided.
History and setting
The first depot opened in 1842, when the Michigan Central line reached Jackson. The present building dates from 1887 and was designed in the Richardsonian Romanesque style by the Detroit firm Spier and Rohns. By 1953 only one irregular train still stopped here, and the station closed in 1956. It later housed the Grass Lake News, until a fire in June 1980 left only the stone shell. The Whistlestop Park Association bought the ruin in 1988, restored it and reopened the depot and its grounds in 1992, when an Amtrak train made a special stop for the dedication. The park takes its name from Whistle Stop, a 1941 novel by Maritta Wolff, who grew up in Grass Lake. The village still uses the depot for town events.
Getting there
The depot stands at 210 East Michigan Avenue. There is no dedicated lot: guests park along both sides of Michigan Avenue, behind the stores off Drake Street, in the church lots two blocks east, at the Village Office west of the tracks, and in the pharmacy lot outside its opening hours. Interstate 94 passes just north of the village.
