Michigan Central Station, while empty, was a classroom, a blank canvas, a refuge for youths

When Freddy Diaz thinks of graffiti at Michigan Central Station, he thinks of childhood in Detroit and not giving up. He’s not alone. This is why the multimillion-dollar restoration of the 1913 historic depot includes spray-painted images and messages left inside the building when it had no roof, no windows, no heat and no locked doors to keep people from trespassing for nearly three decades. The train station closed in 1988, then Ford Motor Co. bought it in 2018. After six years of difficult restoration work, the public will get to see the revived station — including markers of the long vacancy. Critics refer to the kids who covered the iconic Beaux Arts-style building as vandals and hoodlums. But graffiti writers look back and describe it as sort of a gritty community center viewed as a safe space for children who loved to draw and paint but didn’t have art programs like students who attended elite schools in the suburbs. “You can’t have something so beautiful without struggle,” said Diaz, 31, of southwest Detroit. “I started off doing graffiti when I was 12, 13 years old,” he said. “My childhood was pretty rich when it came to the culture, having...