Great video. I have many childhood memories of the Smith terminal. My father was always flying on Americsn back in the day, and we frequented the Admirals Club upstairs. I recall my first fight on a Delta 747 from DTW to Miami in late 1970. At around 9:00 into the video, when the host pokes around the old Southwest desk? That used to be where Pan Am and BOAC were located. I recall my first flight to London on VC-10.
That was a nice trip down memory lane. So many childhood memories of just walking through security to see family flying in from Florida lol. thank you.
+Chase Kelly Hey it was my pleasure! my childhood was mainly here at the L.C. Smith, Davey, the McNamara, and RSW's old and new terminals...I am glad you enjoyed it!
Man Wish i wouldve made a tape in the Late 70s , early 80s going thru the terminals and up on the observation deck, i have to dig up my photo albums from my childhood and see if i have stuff from in the gates and in the terminal or on the observation deck ,, thanks for the Video, though youre younger it helps us older folks bring back the memories of what were in those terminals and things that werent but now are that you remember,,
I don’t remember much from this building mostly the arrivals hall downstairs. I actually work at the airport now and this was demolished to make way for the central deice facility and the offices were moved to a new building off the evens (north) terminal
i found out why the old A and B concourses were closed off... They were open a few years ago even though the terminal had finished the move to the north terminal but after a few years there was severe water damage and other issues that forced the WCAA to close them off. I was able to talk to the Public Affairs coordinator at DTW and he told me that it was now unsafe to go into the concourses because of wires, broken glass, and of course all the mold and water damage now. Some of the jetways have animals living in them since they have just say there rotting away and parts have been removed. The area with the offices and stuff where you can walk around is pretty nice though and by the old southwest counters you can still find old baggage forms and bag tags which I have a few of them. It's sad to see the old jetways and empty terminal. You can almost picture it back when it was up and running. I even checked out the baggage claim area and the carousels are still there just not functioning. I hope to be back in there for another tour
Oh wow, I can remember checking in at the old Davey terminal for Northwest in the 90s and the dreaded walk down to C26 (with only one working speed walk). For breakfast it was either a Cinabon or a hotdog from a 'snack bar'. The McNamara and North terminals are far superior. Still, the Smith and Davey were state of the art when built.
Ah yes... good old concourse "C" with the 30 minute walk from the Davey terminal to the concourse! I remember when C became part of the Smith, and the hall to the Marriott and Davey was closed off. All i can recall from the Davey was a small gift shop before the C security checkpoint, NWA decal galore and the cool glass block windows. Thanks for sharing your memories! And yes, they both were some of the nicest terminals around in their time.
DeltaVille,, when The Davey Terminal was around,, well before northwest took it over, I was Braniff and United that was at that terminal Braniff went bankrupt in 89 :) ,, Northwest had a very small fleet and were in the east end of the Smith Terminal
LOL it sure was an awesome experience! You can visit it yourself, just contact the WCAA (Wayne County Airport Authority) and ask if you could visit. Also, make sure security is notified that you are visiting, so you dont get kicked out! :-) Thanks for commenting, and good luck
Thank you for your time! 2014.. ah gosh, so upset I didn't at least take a single photo back in 2011 and 2012 when I had Lufthansa Cargo deice training in there!
You make an error at about the 2:45 mark of the video. That concourse you're shooting out the window at that point wasn't the old Northwest concourse....that was Delta and TWA many many years ago. The steps that were right in front of you in the video at that point...they lead up onto the roof and the old observation deck above the Delta concourse. The old TWA gate was that first gate you see out the window. The Northwest and America concourses were at the other end of the terminal. The old Delta ticket counter was along the wall on the right as you walked into the doors where you entered. The point of your video where they built the wall up half way down that old ramp....at the bottom, you'd turn left to head to the Delta and TWA gates. If you turned to the right at that point and walked down that long hall...the next concourse on your left was the old Eastern Airlines and Allegheny (US Air) concourses. After that you hit the lobby of the old Hotel. After the Hotel...the next concourse to the left was the old North Central (Republic) concourse. The last concourse at the end on the left was United. Now...I don't know what period you're talking about time-wise, but, I'm referring to the period from about 1974 until about 1986 when I was a weekly regular at the airport.
+J Evenden If you watch this video closely. He enters the closed terminal on the right side of the building. Back in the 70's and 80's...that was the end where the Delta ticket counter used to be. Right at about the 2:30 mark of this video....he's recording down a walled off hallway. He stops and points the camera out that window. He makes the comment about that concourse being the American or Northwest concourse....it wasn't. If you look at the 2:30 - 2:50 mark of this video....you see stairs in it. Those were the stairs that lead up onto the old observation deck above the Delta and TWA concourse you see out the window. American and Northwest were at the other end of the terminal from where he enters at.
+J Evenden He also makes the comment in the video, that Southwest and United were at the south end of the LC Smith terminal.....Southwest, may have been.....but, United never was. United operated their ticketing operation out of the Davey Terminal, which was located on the other side of the Hotel. Here is a link for some pictures and historical information about the history. www.metroairport.com/Portals/WCAACorp/WCAA%20Documents/PDFs/Detroit_Metropolitan_airport_history.pdf
+Loren J. Yes youre correct, Sounds like this person doing the video is too young to know that,, i just came upon this video and said the same thing,, its walled off,, those stairs did go up to the observation deck, where you went thru the turnstiles you had to put a dime in ,, My dad took us up to that all the time in the 70s and early 80s, that was for sure above all the delta and TWA,, delta was on the west side of the concourse, TWA on the east,, going back to the baggage claim escalators, you would go to the hallway, which if you went left would go to the Delta TWA gates if you went to the right would lead you to where, North Central and Eastern were at , and then down then thru the lower lobby of the hotel, Then that would take you to the UNITED section and i believe Braniff was in there too, in the other Terminal,, At the entrance where he started the video, which is the east entrance of the terminal , by the Ticket counters,, when you first walk in the doors, to the immediate left was a cool Video game arcade :) , ALSO THERE A LOT OF NEWER THINGS THAT werent even there in the 70s/80s,, and when you went past the ticket counters , if you went to the left there was a hallway that went behind the ticket counters and used to have sit down seating with pay tvs hooked to them , and that hallway would lead to the other end and off to the Concourse that Housed American and Some others that didnt have many aircraft. that halway had restrooms if you remember they had pay toilets,, it costed like 25cents to use the Commodes,,,LOL :P , that hallway met up with the hallway at the East end of the ticket counters. , and the lobby didnt have anything in it like those stores,,, It always had Car displays and everything else. I could Micro breakdown all that stuff further, but you did a good job, AHHH THE GOOD OLE DAYS,, and when you first came in the West entrance, there was escalators when you first came in the door coming up from the baggage claim ,,, Was cool back in the day you could walk right to the gate meet people , and we didnt have all this crap of today !!! he didnt even go down to the baggage claim did he ???
I remember going up on the observation deck on Friday and Saturday evenings in the mid-70's. Delta had a flight (flight 842) that was a stretch 8 and it always parked at gate 22 right below the deck. It was awesome, listening to the unique howling sounds from the old Prats on the DC-8 when they would spin them up. This was back in the days when fuel was about .29 cents a gallon and they'd start the engines before push back. At that time...Delta had a busy stretch between 9:00 and 10:30pm where they had five departures leaving out. Two went to Atlanta, one to Orlando, one to Miami and a DC-9-30 that went to Dayton as a segment terminator.
No... it will eventually be torn down like the Barry Terminal was just a couple of years ago... The main reason it is still standing is that the administrative offices used to be located there at the Smith... They have since built a new office building which is connected to the North Terminal... although there is still a few offices operating in the Smith they won't be much longer as maintaining the building and the utility costs are far too high for what little office space is being used... That was even the case before they built the new Administration building... However, that location is a prime location for a new terminal if and when DTW needs another terminal, but it will be built from scratch and nothing would be saved from the Smith just like nothing was saved from the Davey Terminal when the North Terminal was built... AND THAT'S A GOOD THING AS THESE TERMINALS THAT WERE BUILT IN THE 50'S AND 60'S CANNOT BE REVAMPED INTO EFFICIENT TERMINALS TO MEET MODERN DEMANDS.
Just stinks,, Planes of the past Never to fly again,, DC-10, L-1011, DC-8 , 727, 707 , 720, 730, soon the older 747s . The old days of smoking on flights and flightmeals included with your flight all things of the past :) but never forgotten
Technically yes--as the Smith & Davey terminals were conjoined and shared concourses. The C concourse in particular was part of both terminals at one time. I am not sure of the exact gate NW255 used, but if anyone else does, please feel free to mention it here. My guess is considering that it was an MD-82, it would have either used C, D, or E.
@@miaviation-railway I'm a little obsessed with gates used by famous crashes. American 191, Usair 427, etc. are some of the gates I've been to. A little morbid, I know, but it feels kind of spiritrual to see a door where more than a hundred souls entered and left the earth for good.
All gone now, worked in that building for most of the 80s and early 90s. Lots of memories
Great video. I have many childhood memories of the Smith terminal. My father was always flying on Americsn back in the day, and we frequented the Admirals Club upstairs. I recall my first fight on a Delta 747 from DTW to Miami in late 1970. At around 9:00 into the video, when the host pokes around the old Southwest desk? That used to be where Pan Am and BOAC were located. I recall my first flight to London on VC-10.
That was a nice trip down memory lane. So many childhood memories of just walking through security to see family flying in from Florida lol. thank you.
+Chase Kelly Hey it was my pleasure! my childhood was mainly here at the L.C. Smith, Davey, the McNamara, and RSW's old and new terminals...I am glad you enjoyed it!
Man Wish i wouldve made a tape in the Late 70s , early 80s going thru the terminals and up on the observation deck, i have to dig up my photo albums from my childhood and see if i have stuff from in the gates and in the terminal or on the observation deck ,, thanks for the Video, though youre younger it helps us older folks bring back the memories of what were in those terminals and things that werent but now are that you remember,,
Great memories!
I don’t remember much from this building mostly the arrivals hall downstairs. I actually work at the airport now and this was demolished to make way for the central deice facility and the offices were moved to a new building off the evens (north) terminal
i found out why the old A and B concourses were closed off... They were open a few years ago even though the terminal had finished the move to the north terminal but after a few years there was severe water damage and other issues that forced the WCAA to close them off. I was able to talk to the Public Affairs coordinator at DTW and he told me that it was now unsafe to go into the concourses because of wires, broken glass, and of course all the mold and water damage now. Some of the jetways have animals living in them since they have just say there rotting away and parts have been removed. The area with the offices and stuff where you can walk around is pretty nice though and by the old southwest counters you can still find old baggage forms and bag tags which I have a few of them. It's sad to see the old jetways and empty terminal. You can almost picture it back when it was up and running. I even checked out the baggage claim area and the carousels are still there just not functioning. I hope to be back in there for another tour
Oh wow, I can remember checking in at the old Davey terminal for Northwest in the 90s and the dreaded walk down to C26 (with only one working speed walk). For breakfast it was either a Cinabon or a hotdog from a 'snack bar'. The McNamara and North terminals are far superior. Still, the Smith and Davey were state of the art when built.
Ah yes... good old concourse "C" with the 30 minute walk from the Davey terminal to the concourse! I remember when C became part of the Smith, and the hall to the Marriott and Davey was closed off. All i can recall from the Davey was a small gift shop before the C security checkpoint, NWA decal galore and the cool glass block windows. Thanks for sharing your memories! And yes, they both were some of the nicest terminals around in their time.
DeltaVille,, when The Davey Terminal was around,, well before northwest took it over, I was Braniff and United that was at that terminal Braniff went bankrupt in 89 :) ,, Northwest had a very small fleet and were in the east end of the Smith Terminal
I HATE the McNamara Terminal.
I may have flown through this terminal at some point close to its cease of passenger use; the check-in does look familiar.
I was able to get in there recently! I found some old southwest paperwork and bag tags. And I took a bunch of pictures
i only remember a glimpse of the old terminal, man how i wish i can go back and take it in
LOL it sure was an awesome experience! You can visit it yourself, just contact the WCAA (Wayne County Airport Authority) and ask if you could visit. Also, make sure security is notified that you are visiting, so you dont get kicked out! :-) Thanks for commenting, and good luck
I used to work there. And I still work at north terminal. Anyway we can go take a walk throu tour. I wanna go back in so bad and the Barry terminal.
Thank you for your time!
2014.. ah gosh, so upset I didn't at least take a single photo back in 2011 and 2012 when I had Lufthansa Cargo deice training in there!
This was a very nice terminal. Even though I only visited it twice: in May of 2007 and August of 2008, I have quite a few memories of it.
It was quite the fascinating building! I am glad you enjoyed your experiences there.
And yes, I was quite saddened when I heard the news on 16 September 2008 that this terminated flights.
@@OPG2711 Same here! The demolition is currently underway, with the ticket lobby being torn apart.
You make an error at about the 2:45 mark of the video. That concourse you're shooting out the window at that point wasn't the old Northwest concourse....that was Delta and TWA many many years ago. The steps that were right in front of you in the video at that point...they lead up onto the roof and the old observation deck above the Delta concourse. The old TWA gate was that first gate you see out the window. The Northwest and America concourses were at the other end of the terminal. The old Delta ticket counter was along the wall on the right as you walked into the doors where you entered. The point of your video where they built the wall up half way down that old ramp....at the bottom, you'd turn left to head to the Delta and TWA gates. If you turned to the right at that point and walked down that long hall...the next concourse on your left was the old Eastern Airlines and Allegheny (US Air) concourses. After that you hit the lobby of the old Hotel. After the Hotel...the next concourse to the left was the old North Central (Republic) concourse. The last concourse at the end on the left was United. Now...I don't know what period you're talking about time-wise, but, I'm referring to the period from about 1974 until about 1986 when I was a weekly regular at the airport.
+Loren J. If I'm not mistaken I thought American Airlines gates were at the south end of the terminal C?
+J Evenden If you watch this video closely. He enters the closed terminal on the right side of the building. Back in the 70's and 80's...that was the end where the Delta ticket counter used to be. Right at about the 2:30 mark of this video....he's recording down a walled off hallway. He stops and points the camera out that window. He makes the comment about that concourse being the American or Northwest concourse....it wasn't. If you look at the 2:30 - 2:50 mark of this video....you see stairs in it. Those were the stairs that lead up onto the old observation deck above the Delta and TWA concourse you see out the window. American and Northwest were at the other end of the terminal from where he enters at.
+J Evenden He also makes the comment in the video, that Southwest and United were at the south end of the LC Smith terminal.....Southwest, may have been.....but, United never was. United operated their ticketing operation out of the Davey Terminal, which was located on the other side of the Hotel. Here is a link for some pictures and historical information about the history.
www.metroairport.com/Portals/WCAACorp/WCAA%20Documents/PDFs/Detroit_Metropolitan_airport_history.pdf
+Loren J. Yes youre correct, Sounds like this person doing the video is too young to know that,, i just came upon this video and said the same thing,, its walled off,, those stairs did go up to the observation deck, where you went thru the turnstiles you had to put a dime in ,, My dad took us up to that all the time in the 70s and early 80s, that was for sure above all the delta and TWA,, delta was on the west side of the concourse, TWA on the east,, going back to the baggage claim escalators, you would go to the hallway, which if you went left would go to the Delta TWA gates if you went to the right would lead you to where, North Central and Eastern were at , and then down then thru the lower lobby of the hotel, Then that would take you to the UNITED section and i believe Braniff was in there too, in the other Terminal,, At the entrance where he started the video, which is the east entrance of the terminal , by the Ticket counters,, when you first walk in the doors, to the immediate left was a cool Video game arcade :) , ALSO THERE A LOT OF NEWER THINGS THAT werent even there in the 70s/80s,, and when you went past the ticket counters , if you went to the left there was a hallway that went behind the ticket counters and used to have sit down seating with pay tvs hooked to them , and that hallway would lead to the other end and off to the Concourse that Housed American and Some others that didnt have many aircraft. that halway had restrooms if you remember they had pay toilets,, it costed like 25cents to use the Commodes,,,LOL :P , that hallway met up with the hallway at the East end of the ticket counters. , and the lobby didnt have anything in it like those stores,,, It always had Car displays and everything else. I could Micro breakdown all that stuff further, but you did a good job, AHHH THE GOOD OLE DAYS,, and when you first came in the West entrance, there was escalators when you first came in the door coming up from the baggage claim ,,, Was cool back in the day you could walk right to the gate meet people , and we didnt have all this crap of today !!! he didnt even go down to the baggage claim did he ???
I remember going up on the observation deck on Friday and Saturday evenings in the mid-70's. Delta had a flight (flight 842) that was a stretch 8 and it always parked at gate 22 right below the deck. It was awesome, listening to the unique howling sounds from the old Prats on the DC-8 when they would spin them up. This was back in the days when fuel was about .29 cents a gallon and they'd start the engines before push back. At that time...Delta had a busy stretch between 9:00 and 10:30pm where they had five departures leaving out. Two went to Atlanta, one to Orlando, one to Miami and a DC-9-30 that went to Dayton as a segment terminator.
Are they ever going to use the terminal again?
No... it will eventually be torn down like the Barry Terminal was just a couple of years ago... The main reason it is still standing is that the administrative offices used to be located there at the Smith... They have since built a new office building which is connected to the North Terminal... although there is still a few offices operating in the Smith they won't be much longer as maintaining the building and the utility costs are far too high for what little office space is being used... That was even the case before they built the new Administration building...
However, that location is a prime location for a new terminal if and when DTW needs another terminal, but it will be built from scratch and nothing would be saved from the Smith just like nothing was saved from the Davey Terminal when the North Terminal was built... AND THAT'S A GOOD THING AS THESE TERMINALS THAT WERE BUILT IN THE 50'S AND 60'S CANNOT BE REVAMPED INTO EFFICIENT TERMINALS TO MEET MODERN DEMANDS.
Damn i shouldve asked to take a tour of this last yr when i worked At the North Terminal,, OH well
Just stinks,, Planes of the past Never to fly again,, DC-10, L-1011, DC-8 , 727, 707 , 720, 730, soon the older 747s . The old days of smoking on flights and flightmeals included with your flight all things of the past :) but never forgotten
Will you be posting any videos soon? It's been a long time.
Sadly the vintage old terminal is gone now
Do you have the arrivals videos of any terminal?
Unfortunately, no I do not have any other videos of the old terminals at DTW.
Is this the terminal where NW 255 would have departed from?
Technically yes--as the Smith & Davey terminals were conjoined and shared concourses. The C concourse in particular was part of both terminals at one time. I am not sure of the exact gate NW255 used, but if anyone else does, please feel free to mention it here. My guess is considering that it was an MD-82, it would have either used C, D, or E.
@@miaviation-railway I'm a little obsessed with gates used by famous crashes. American 191, Usair 427, etc. are some of the gates I've been to. A little morbid, I know, but it feels kind of spiritrual to see a door where more than a hundred souls entered and left the earth for good.
@@miaviation-railway According 4:25-4:27 of this CVR recording, it was D15: ruclips.net/video/noADOBnvfZQ/видео.html
@@Satoshi9801 Thank you for the info
As of tonight December 20, the Control Tower was taken down.
Nostalgia!
Are they demolishing all of this currently?
Unfortunately, yes. The control tower on top of it should be coming down this week, as the lobby is almost all gone.
Nice