Station: Hanover, MI

Hanover was located in southwest Jackson County and was settled about 1836. The village was incorporated in 1885. [MPN]

Photo Info: Top, the Fort Wayne & Jackson depot at Hanover. Note the crossing of both railroads in the foreground and the oil light train order signals on two sides of the depot. 2nd photo, the Lake Shore Hanover Depot in 1905. The track with the locomotive is the former Fort Wayne & Jackson. The single track is the former DT&M. 

3rd photo, this appears to be the same depot in 1910. Note the interesting box window for the operator to view oncoming trains. 4th photo, a view of the abandoned freight depot at Hanover. [Alan Loftis collection]. 5th photo, one of the passenger depots at Hanover, taken in 2003. It has been restored and is now used as a VFW hall. [Alan Loftis]. 6th photo, a map of Hanover in 1894.

Notes

Hanover was the crossing of two Lake Shore & Michigan Southern lines - from Jackson to Fort Wayne and from Allegan to Dundee. Hanover was reported to have at least three depots at one time, perhaps two passenger and one freight.

On 4/19/2024 Jesse Burkhardt writes: "The Fort Wayne route off the Elkhart line at Haires Junction was gone in the early 1960s, but there was still service from Hillsdale to Horton or Hanover from the south. I recall being in Hanover in 1960s and the tracks looked as if they still were in some kind of use. Someone there told me the train ran once every six weeks or so to bring some kind of drilling mud, or something like that, to a mining operation in the Hanover-Horton area."

Time Line

1926. The crossing was protected by a pole target with vertical allowing on the Fort Wayne Branch. [ETT-1926]