42°21′ N   83°04′ WINDEPENDENT CITY GUIDE · HU / ENDETROIT + MICHIGAN
QUARTER
DETROIT
Menu
QUARTER
DETROIT

Eat & drink

Things to do

Shows & music

Getting around

People & community

About usFor venues

Car 292 in New Center, with the Fisher Building’s tower behind (2021)
Michael Barera · CC BY-SA 4.0

QLINE / Stop 12 of 12

QLINE stopGrand Boulevard

Center platform in the middle of Woodward · the QLINE’s northern terminus

The QLINE’s northern terminus in New Center: the Fisher Building, Cadillac Place and New Center Park a few minutes away, the Penske Tech Center depot two blocks north, the Motown Museum a longer walk west.

↑ north: terminus
↓ south: 17:30
Platforms
one center platform
District
New Center
From Congress Street
24 min
From Grand Boulevard
terminus
Sponsor in 2017
Henry Ford Health System

01 / Story

The stop’s story

Grand Boulevard is the QLINE’s northern terminus, with a single center platform in the middle of Woodward. New Center was built in the 1920s as a business hub away from downtown, and some historians call it America’s original “edge city”. Here on West Grand Boulevard stands Albert Kahn’s 1928 Fisher Building with its 2,089-seat Fisher Theatre, and facing it Cadillac Place, General Motors’ former headquarters. The stop was sponsored in 2017 by Henry Ford Health System, whose flagship Henry Ford Hospital has stood at the western edge of New Center since 1915.

The streetcars’ home is two blocks north at 7520 Woodward: the $6.9 million Penske Tech Center, about 19,000 square feet, opened on May 2, 2016 with a reddish brick front to match the neighborhood. It is also the QLINE’s control center and workshop, and according to HNTB the nation’s first streetcar maintenance facility to run completely without overhead wire.

The first car, No. 287, arrived in Detroit on the night of September 13, 2016, about two months early, and made its first test trip on Woodward on December 13, still under tow. Grand Boulevard was already the terminus in the very first private plan of 2008, which would have run from Hart Plaza to here with 12 stops.

  1. The QLINE’s northern terminus
  2. The Fisher Building and Cadillac Place five minutes away
  3. The Penske Tech Center depot two blocks north
  4. Your starting point for the Motown Museum

02 / From the window

What you see from here

West along West Grand Boulevard stand the Fisher Building and Cadillac Place; north, the tracks run on toward the Penske Tech Center. The Motown Museum, Hitsville U.S.A., is about 0.9 mile west along the boulevard as the crow flies: a good 20-minute walk, or DDOT’s route 42, the Mid-City Loop.

03 / Timeline

The stop’s timeline

  1. Henry Ford Hospital opens

    On the western edge of New Center.

  2. The Fisher Building is finished

    Albert Kahn’s Art Deco tower becomes New Center’s landmark.

  3. Hitsville U.S.A.

    Berry Gordy buys the house on West Grand Boulevard where Motown is born.

  4. Terminus of the first plan

    The private investors’ plan would run from Hart Plaza to Grand Boulevard.

  5. Penske Tech Center opens

    Depot, workshop and control center two blocks north.

  6. Car 287 arrives

    The first streetcar, two months early.

  7. The terminus opens

    The stop is sponsored by Henry Ford Health System.

  8. The streetcar stops here every fifteen minutes, free of charge.

04 / Did you know?

Did you know?

  • The Fisher family financed the Fisher Building with the proceeds from selling Fisher Body to General Motors.

  • The Fisher Building houses the studios of WJR radio and the headquarters of Detroit’s public schools.

  • Henry Ford Hospital was one of the first in the United States to ban smoking entirely, because Henry Ford considered tobacco unhealthy.

The Fisher Building’s tower from Second Avenue (2020)
Andre Carrotflower · CC BY-SA 4.0
Cadillac Place, General Motors’ former headquarters on Grand Boulevard (2020)
Andre Carrotflower · CC BY-SA 4.0
The M-1 Rail Penske Tech Center on Woodward, north of Grand Boulevard (2021)
Michael Barera · CC BY-SA 4.0
A streetcar outside the Penske Tech Center (2021)
Michael Barera · CC BY-SA 4.0
Inside the maintenance facility, May 2017
A Healthier Michigan · CC BY-SA 2.0
Woodward at Grand Boulevard, today’s northern terminus, in 2008 before the tracks
Andrew Jameson · CC BY-SA 3.0
Sources & fact check · Checked: 2026-09-26

Every fact is sourced. Where sources disagree (the number of stops, the weight of the cars or the construction cost, for example) we follow the primary, official source and say so in the text. The timetable comes from the QLINE’s official GTFS data and live positions from the RTA’s feed.

05 / Nearby

Places within walking distance

Quarter Detroit places around the stop, with straight-line distances.

Around the stop, from the official QLINE list and the map

  • Fisher Building 5 min

    Albert Kahn’s 1928 Art Deco skyscraper, home of the Fisher Theatre.

  • Cadillac Place 5 min

    General Motors’ former headquarters, a National Historic Landmark.

  • New Center Park 5 min

    A small park in the heart of New Center, one of the QLINE’s official destinations.

  • Penske Tech Center 3 min

    The QLINE’s depot and headquarters at 7520 Woodward.

  • Henry Ford Hospital 16 min

    Henry Ford Health’s flagship hospital since 1915.

  • Motown Museum (Hitsville U.S.A.) about 20 min

    Motown’s first studio and headquarters, now a museum; DDOT’s route 42 goes there too.

06 / Events

Events near the stop

Upcoming events at venues around the stop.

All events ↗