Discuss Detroit » Hall of Fame Threads » Old Car Factories » Old Car Factories - 22
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Hornwrecker
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Username: Hornwrecker

Post Number: 1213
Registered: 04-2005
Posted From: 63.41.8.142
Posted on Monday, May 29, 2006 - 9:33 pm:   Edit PostDelete Post   Move Post (Moderator/Admin Only)

From the 1921 Sanborn map, Johnson Co. maker of carburetors, 1901 E Forest. I found some references to Johnson Carbs from 1918 up to 1932.

As an added bonus, the REO warehouse, 1822 Warsaw Pl., near St Aubin. This might have been a parts warehouse or something like a dealer prep place.





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56packman
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Post Number: 327
Registered: 12-2005
Posted From: 129.9.163.234
Posted on Tuesday, May 30, 2006 - 12:38 pm:   Edit PostDelete Post   Move Post (Moderator/Admin Only)

A visit to the First Hudson factory:first hudson factory From MSU "making of Modern Michigan site

first Hudson factory From Hudson club magazine "the triangle"

trimmers-Hudson--somewhat later, early 20's. from MSU

(Message edited by 56packman on May 30, 2006)
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Hornwrecker
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Post Number: 1215
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Posted From: 63.41.40.186
Posted on Tuesday, May 30, 2006 - 9:41 pm:   Edit PostDelete Post   Move Post (Moderator/Admin Only)

A few more photos of the old Hudson factory on Mack and Beaufait. Did we ever pin down an address on this one? I forgot where I found these.

1910
Hudson factory 1910

1909
Hudson workforce 1909

1932: Amelia Earhart shilling for the new Hudson Terraplane
Amelia Earhart 1932 Terraplane
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Livedog2
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Post Number: 313
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Posted From: 24.223.133.177
Posted on Wednesday, May 31, 2006 - 8:47 pm:   Edit PostDelete Post   Move Post (Moderator/Admin Only)

Can anyone identify the make, model and year of this car.

car

Livedog2
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56packman
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Post Number: 329
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Posted From: 65.185.132.134
Posted on Wednesday, May 31, 2006 - 8:59 pm:   Edit PostDelete Post   Move Post (Moderator/Admin Only)

Looks like what's left of a '46-'48 Chevy, could be as early as 1940 but I'd have to see the front end to make a positive ID
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Livedog2
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Posted From: 24.223.133.177
Posted on Wednesday, May 31, 2006 - 9:35 pm:   Edit PostDelete Post   Move Post (Moderator/Admin Only)

This is as much of a shot of the front of the car as I could get without getting bit by the dog in the yard.

front of car

Livedog2
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56packman
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Post Number: 330
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Posted From: 129.9.163.105
Posted on Thursday, June 01, 2006 - 8:41 am:   Edit PostDelete Post   Move Post (Moderator/Admin Only)

'46-'48 Chevy, for sure. Pretty much the same car for three years--people were so hungry for new cars they didn't care.
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Hornwrecker
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Post Number: 1223
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Posted From: 63.41.8.153
Posted on Monday, June 05, 2006 - 9:25 pm:   Edit PostDelete Post   Move Post (Moderator/Admin Only)

I found a few more Hudson photos on my computer. The first from an Allied mission, WWI for aviation at the Hudson Factory.

Hudson aviation mission WWI

A strike on Jefferson factory, nice shot of DSR. WSU

Hudson strike

Painting (Is that a Hudson body? It looks like a Nash to me.)

painting Hudson

Assembly
Hudson assembly line
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56packman
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Post Number: 339
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Posted From: 65.185.132.134
Posted on Tuesday, June 06, 2006 - 6:50 am:   Edit PostDelete Post   Move Post (Moderator/Admin Only)

The car on the body drop (bottom picture) is a Kaiser--that would have been taken at the K-F plant at Willow Run. The picture of the steaming body being raised out of the tank appears to be a '61 Dodge--from dat Dache main.
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Hornwrecker
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Post Number: 1224
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Posted From: 63.41.40.81
Posted on Tuesday, June 06, 2006 - 9:53 pm:   Edit PostDelete Post   Move Post (Moderator/Admin Only)

Thanks for the ID, Packman, I never would have gotten the Kaiser. Now that I look at the painting photo, I see the Dartish, front fenders. Silly me for trusting a photo file name or description on the web.

An aside: the only auto stock my father ever bought was Kaiser; if he can make cars the way he can make ships...
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Livedog2
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Post Number: 340
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Posted From: 24.223.133.177
Posted on Tuesday, June 06, 2006 - 11:25 pm:   Edit PostDelete Post   Move Post (Moderator/Admin Only)

This is the only thread that constantly and continuously makes any sense. Well, maybe “Jews in Detroit…” qualifies, too! Now that I think about it “Detroit’s 2nd Train Terminal” fits the bill, also. Never mind…I’ve got another thought now and now and now…

I pulled over to help this old guy that was broke down on the side of the road. I gave him a bottle of Evian Water that he used to put into his radiator with the cup in his hand because he had overheated. The old guy told me he was the original owner of this 1938 Buick and that everything, including the paint job was right off the production line.

1938 Buick

Livedog2
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Mikem
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Post Number: 2593
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Posted From: 68.43.15.105
Posted on Thursday, June 08, 2006 - 5:39 pm:   Edit PostDelete Post   Move Post (Moderator/Admin Only)

From the newletter of the Center for Land Use Interpretation

The Henry Ford Experience
A Vertically Integrated Interpretive Assembly Line

http://www.clui.org/clui_4_1/l otl/v29/d.html
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Livedog2
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Post Number: 366
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Posted From: 24.223.133.177
Posted on Saturday, June 10, 2006 - 12:02 am:   Edit PostDelete Post   Move Post (Moderator/Admin Only)

Does anyone know what this thing is? And, if so was it manufactured in Detroit and where? It kind of looks like a smashed-in or scrunched-up Ford.

old car

Livedog2
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Kathleen
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Username: Kathleen

Post Number: 1359
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Posted From: 69.14.122.57
Posted on Saturday, June 10, 2006 - 8:15 am:   Edit PostDelete Post   Move Post (Moderator/Admin Only)

SHELBY TOWNSHIP: Carnival of Cars to aid Packard Proving Grounds

Shelby Township will hold its 43rd annual Carnival of Cars from 8 a.m. to 4 p.m. Sunday [June 11] at the Packard Proving Grounds on Van Dyke, near 22 Mile.

Proceeds will go toward the restoration of the grounds. The cost is $5 per person and free for children younger than 12.

Events are to include a car show, swap meet, musical entertainment and door prizes. Clowns and face painting are planned to entertain the kids.

For information, visit www.classiccarsofmichigan.com.

(http://www.freep.com/apps/pbcs .dll/article?AID=/20060605/NEW S04/606050408/1006)

Packard plant gets new life

'Arsenal of Democracy' museum to open in '08 at site of factory that equipped U.S. in WWII.


It has been nearly five decades since the Packard Motor Car Co. built a 7-ton marine engine in Detroit and shipped it to California to be placed in a mine sweeper and used in the months following World War II.

But the military green V-12 engine never was used in duty, and was later obtained by the Detroit Historical Society. The engine was shortly on display at America's Packard Museum in Dayton, Ohio, before the society had it returned to Detroit.

The engine, constructed of stainless steel and aluminum, was transported along with a PT boat this week to the Packard Proving Grounds in Shelby Township, where they will become the centerpiece of a proposed National Arsenal of Democracy museum. ...

(http://www.detnews.com/apps/pb cs.dll/article?AID=/20060519/M ETRO03/605190362/1014)
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Livedog2
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Post Number: 368
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Posted From: 24.223.133.177
Posted on Saturday, June 10, 2006 - 12:22 pm:   Edit PostDelete Post   Move Post (Moderator/Admin Only)

pt boat

Livedog2
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Hornwrecker
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Post Number: 1233
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Posted From: 63.41.8.238
Posted on Saturday, June 10, 2006 - 12:31 pm:   Edit PostDelete Post   Move Post (Moderator/Admin Only)

Livedog, that car looks like an electric car. Try searching for Anderson 1907-39?, which was the largest and longest lived of the Detroit electric car makers. I think there were about dozen different makers here, most only for a year or two. I haven't gotten around to looking at them in depth yet.
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Livedog2
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Post Number: 369
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Posted From: 24.223.133.177
Posted on Saturday, June 10, 2006 - 12:51 pm:   Edit PostDelete Post   Move Post (Moderator/Admin Only)

My cousin told me to email the photo to the Petersen Automotive Museum and they might help with the identification. I did that and they told me it was a Bakerel and I've never heard of that kind of car before. I looked it up on the internet but didn't find anything else about it.

Livedog2
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Livedog2
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Post Number: 370
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Posted From: 24.223.133.177
Posted on Saturday, June 10, 2006 - 12:56 pm:   Edit PostDelete Post   Move Post (Moderator/Admin Only)

Make that a Baker Electric (1914)!

Livedog2
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Livedog2
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Post Number: 372
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Posted From: 24.223.133.177
Posted on Saturday, June 10, 2006 - 2:11 pm:   Edit PostDelete Post   Move Post (Moderator/Admin Only)

You know the people on this site are great at getting “old car factory” information concerning land, plant, operations, assets, cars, locations and a whole host of other details about the non-human details and inanimate objects of the automobile industry. But, I see very little information about the things that made the automobile industry grow, thrive and multiple – namely the people and when I say the people I mean the workers. There’s plenty of information about the guys that had the money and started the companies. I’m curious whatever happened to the records of these many, many companies that went out of business like Packard, Nash, Studebaker, etc.? Did anyone have the foresight to maintain the personnel records on all their employees? If they did where are these records located and has/is anyone done anything with them. I think this is where the real story about the history of Detroit lies. Just wondering!

Livedog2
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56packman
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Posted From: 65.185.132.134
Posted on Sunday, June 11, 2006 - 12:52 am:   Edit PostDelete Post   Move Post (Moderator/Admin Only)

Livedog2--I can't answer for other makes, but I can tell you about Packard. When Packard reached "the end" in the summer of 1956 (they were out of cash, banks and insurance companies that had loaned money in '53 did not have the principal back yet, and were not going to lend any more cash) a quick purchase was arranged (some said with the help of the Eisenhower administration) for defense giant Curtis-Wright to buy Studebaker-Packard. Things had been shaky at Packard for most of that year, and employees knew that the company was in danger of going under. Production at the Connor plant ended June 25th, 1956--the last "true-Detroit" Packards. President Jim Nance resigned, and C-W made swift moves to shut everything in Detroit down (meaning everything Packard) and move it to the South Bend, IN HQ and plant of Studebaker. Workers at the East Grand blvd. Packard offices were sent from empty department to empty department with large muslin-sided rolling laundry baskets. They would take file cabinet after file cabinet of papers and dump them into the baskets. Packard had damn near every piece of corrspondence going back ot '03, when they moved from Warren Ohio to Detroit. They prided themselves on the high percentage of Packards that were still being driven daily, and supported those cars with parts until the early 50's, when bean counters hired from GM and Ford killed that program. They had blueprints going back to the early '03-up cars.
All of those laundry baskets were marched across East Grand Blvd. to the Powerhouse (where the super market building stood, across the street from the offices and next to the body fab/120 plant on the south side of EGB) and fed into the furnaces, in a "Citizen Kane" like finale. We Packard historians and enthusasts could have uncovered thousands of Rosebuds had those files been preserved. The only good thing to occur during this time is that my late friend, Dick Teague (last head of styling for Packard) quietly "took" the contents of the Packard photographic files from the offices that summer. Sensing that the gig was up, he would take two boxes a day from the files, sneak them to a loading dock, and the same driver would deviate from his delivery route between the EGB-HQ and the Utica engine-transmission plant to Dick's Franklin house to place the boxes in his garage. Dick paid the driver $20 cash (1956 $$) for each "run", and the boxes were numbered in the hundreds. He gave them to the Detroit public library, and they now reside in the NAHC at the Skillman branch. Many of those pictures are available online at http://mmm.lib.msu.edu/search/ browsecollections.cfm?t=2&col= 48
but be forwarned: many of the captions are dead wrong.
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Livedog2
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Posted From: 24.223.133.177
Posted on Sunday, June 11, 2006 - 1:49 am:   Edit PostDelete Post   Move Post (Moderator/Admin Only)

That is an amazing story 56packman. What a shame that those records were incinerated. I have tried to get employee information from the Dodge Main Plant days but without any luck. My grandfather worked there from 1917 till his death in 1953 and was a union organizer and dues paying member of Local 3 of the UAW. Some of the most important historical records in this country reside in corporate files but it's near impossible to get at those records unless you are a well connected author that is going to write a book that is going to portray the information you have access to in a favorable light to the company and/or family involved with the company like the Ford Family.

Thank G-d for Dick Teague's insight in spiriting out the records he was able to save! What you say about the bean counters hired from Ford and GM coming in and nixing Packard's support of customers with parts into the early 50's is endemic in all businesses. The human element is the thing that is missing in so many businesses in this day and age. I know "business is business" but we are human beings before we are businessmen and women and in the end what we will be remembered for our humanity and not just our business acumen.

I have two vignettes related to this discussion. The first one is when I lived in Houston, TX. I had a friend that was a fund raiser for non-profit organizations like unwed mothers, halfway houses of all kinds, breadbasket type organizations, medical care and safe nutritional advice for lower income pregnant mothers. They were always very worthwhile organizations that always needed money. Houston, TX is and was the oil capital of the world in terms of technology. But, the richest person in Houston, TX was a guy by the name of Jerry J. Moore and he made his money building strip malls of all things. My friend would always solicit him for funds for all kinds of charitable organizations. But, he prided himself on never giving any funds to any charitable organization. My friend said, “Jerry J. Moore hasn’t discovered the joy of giving yet because he hasn’t figured out he’s not going to live forever and I keep asking him because one day he’s going to figure it out.” My friend had more faith in the process than I did!

The second vignette is that I am in the computer business and have been for 42 years last month. The computer consulting business started at GM way back in the mid to early 60’s. GM’s IT department regularly consisted of at least a 1/3 of their computer staff as outside consultants. They had a huge DP department so that represented probably 10,000 outside consultants at its peak. In the mid-80’s GM had the finest staff of mid to upper level managers in their computer department in all of corporate America. Then Roger Smith brought in Ross Parrott and his EDS mercenaries to support the entire data processing function in GM. The GM people were not only excellent technicians and mangers but they were some of the finest people you would ever want to know. EDS got in there and did a hatchet job on the old line GM managers to such an extent that after about three years none, I mean zip, nada of those mangers were with GM anymore. When EDS got in there at that time the user groups and IT managers had no choice but to use their services but the EDS were always at least 100% to 250% higher than the existing consulting companies that were providing service to GM’s IT department. The other fallout to the EDS debacle was the fact that when they EDS started coming into the Metro-Detroit Area real estate prices skyrocketed and Metro-Detroit wasn’t ever again the affordable housing market that they were before EDS’s assault on the marketplace. In the end after they eviscerated the GM IT staff and department and the local economy their mercenary leader pulled his Lone Star hard ass routine and headed back to Texarkana and/or Dallas. They pulled the same routine with ENRON a few years later and neither GM nor ENRON has been the same since EDS’s assault on those two companies.

Livedog2
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Pdtpuck
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Post Number: 44
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Posted From: 208.251.168.194
Posted on Sunday, June 11, 2006 - 7:28 am:   Edit PostDelete Post   Move Post (Moderator/Admin Only)

*whew!*
3 days...about 15 hours total (all at work, of course! :-) ) and I finally made it through all of the OCF Archives!

you people are amazing!!!

not wanting to single anybody out & have possible hurt feelings, I want to give a big thanks to all who've toiled in the research of this absolutely amazing thread.

I am planning on turning my old-car-loving buddy onto this, but seeing how he's a Pontiac man ('33 and '37 hearse), there may not be enough here to interest him (although his Hudson loving buddy may love it!)!

Thanks again, and now that I'm caught up, I'll be reading on a regular basis!
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Hornwrecker
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Post Number: 1239
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Posted From: 63.41.40.89
Posted on Tuesday, June 13, 2006 - 9:41 pm:   Edit PostDelete Post   Move Post (Moderator/Admin Only)

Beyster-Detroit, 1910-11, 1329 Woodward Ave near Burroughs (Vienna), maker of light delivery trucks.


Beyster-Detroit

Harry Beyster Obit: Harry Beyster attended the University of Michigan before he entered the auto industry in 1906. He began as co-owner of a Detroit garage and then founded his own auto-engineering firm the Beyster Detroit Motor Car Co. He went to the Fisher Body Corp. in 1920 and was in charge of the firm's plant engineering and architectural departments and later on headed the same departments for GM. (This was a $ 40.000 job.) In 1938 GM loaned him to the city of Detroit and he was appointed Department of Public Works commissioner. After World War II president Truman asked him to head the US War Damages Commission in the Philippine Islands. He also served the Federal Government as a technical advisor to several Latin American countries.


Beyster-Detroit truck

About his father,from 1908 The Detroiters: BEYSTER, John, manufacturer and dealer in lumber, lath, shingles, boxes, etc.; born in Holland, May 27, 1838; served apprenticeship at carpenter's trade in Holland for 51/2 years; came to America, 1867, and located in Detroit; married in Holland, 1860, Hendricka Matthie. Followed carpenter's trade and contracting in Detroit until 1877, when he established planning mill and yard in his own name, which still continues. Member Detroit Board of Commerce. Republican. Mason Recreation: Reading. Office: 875 Fort St., W. Residence: 444 Lafayette Av.

Beyster Lumber and Milling

There still is a Beyster Lumber listed in Detroit.

2905 Beaufait Street, Detroit, MI 48207
Lumber Dealers, Millwork Wholesale & Manufacturers


(That's a lot more info than I ever thought I could find on the net about an short lived, obscure maker.)
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Mikem
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Post Number: 2602
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Posted on Tuesday, June 13, 2006 - 10:23 pm:   Edit PostDelete Post   Move Post (Moderator/Admin Only)

Beyster Lumber on Beaufait
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Mikem
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Posted on Friday, June 16, 2006 - 2:09 pm:   Edit PostDelete Post   Move Post (Moderator/Admin Only)

Pardon the angle, but was this the Massey Ferguson factory at the corner of Southfield & 96? And was it a Ford factory prior to that?

Massey Ferguson
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56packman
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Posted on Friday, June 16, 2006 - 3:13 pm:   Edit PostDelete Post   Move Post (Moderator/Admin Only)

No, it was the Massey-Ferguson plant, those M-F'ers made tractors and ag equipment. Before they expanded the plant there was a proving ground on the north side of the property. Back in the sixties a friend of mine used to climb the fence into the grounds and play with the tractors. He got one going and rode around on it for a while, the didn't know how to shut it off, or take it out of gear. He steered it so that it would go agound in circles until it ran out of fuel. He booked, the tractor kept going around in (slowly increasing circles. It took out the fence and the exterior wall of a neighboring house.
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Jjaba
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Post Number: 3919
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Posted From: 67.171.136.201
Posted on Friday, June 16, 2006 - 5:49 pm:   Edit PostDelete Post   Move Post (Moderator/Admin Only)

Packman, everybody around the Westside called it the M-F plant. Your story is priceless.
Thanks.

jjaba.
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Mikem
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Posted on Friday, June 16, 2006 - 6:02 pm:   Edit PostDelete Post   Move Post (Moderator/Admin Only)

That is a funny story. So it was M-F from the beginning? Who owns it now or what is its current use?
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Aiw
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Post Number: 5626
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Posted From: 64.228.64.237
Posted on Friday, June 16, 2006 - 6:10 pm:   Edit PostDelete Post   Move Post (Moderator/Admin Only)

Sorry to change gears.... Anyone know anything about this one?

I made a call here today for work. Sorry for the bad photo, I was trying to be discreet :-)

mystery plant

It's on the north side of 8 Mile in Oak Park, four blocks west of Livernois.

It's circled in the aerial.

01

It's a beautiful building.
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Jjaba
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Posted on Friday, June 16, 2006 - 6:11 pm:   Edit PostDelete Post   Move Post (Moderator/Admin Only)

Ok, so Morris Finkelstein came to Ellis Island in New York Harbor. He was exhausted. Two weeks in steerage across from Hamburg. (And that after an ox cart ride across Europe.)

He waited six hrs. in the line and finally got to the Border Guard who asked his name.

"Shuen Fehrgessen" ("I forgot" in Yiddish)

Ok, welcome to America. And he wrote his pass
with the name of Sean Ferguson. 25 years later, you've got Massey-Ferguson on Southfield Road in Detroit. Massey was Canadian. He teamed with our Yiddische arbiter from Ukraine.

Now you know the story. Years later, M-F sold millions of tractors to the Soviets and Ferguson could talk to them.

jjaba, Westside Torah Bukkor.
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Aiw
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Posted on Friday, June 16, 2006 - 6:12 pm:   Edit PostDelete Post   Move Post (Moderator/Admin Only)

Upon review, I guess it's Ferndale...

Here's another lousy photo, this one from the company website:

a
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Aiw
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Posted on Friday, June 16, 2006 - 6:16 pm:   Edit PostDelete Post   Move Post (Moderator/Admin Only)

jjaba knows the Massey history.

Here is the family Mausoleum in Mout Pleasnt Cemetery in Toronto.

massey
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Jjaba
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Posted on Friday, June 16, 2006 - 6:24 pm:   Edit PostDelete Post   Move Post (Moderator/Admin Only)

Ethyl Corportation in Ferndale. Tis a beaudy from the 1940s or 1950s.
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56packman
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Post Number: 382
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Posted From: 65.185.132.134
Posted on Friday, June 16, 2006 - 6:28 pm:   Edit PostDelete Post   Move Post (Moderator/Admin Only)

Ergo the ancient joke "I'd like to pump Ethyl"




Baaaaaboomp-a
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Jjaba
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Posted on Friday, June 16, 2006 - 6:29 pm:   Edit PostDelete Post   Move Post (Moderator/Admin Only)

The Massey Grave is some serious stone, Richardsonian Romanesque with turret to the max.

jjaba.
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Aiw
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Posted From: 64.228.64.237
Posted on Friday, June 16, 2006 - 6:41 pm:   Edit PostDelete Post   Move Post (Moderator/Admin Only)

It sure is jjaba, it's also a designated historic site in Toronto.

http://www.toronto.ca/legdocs/ bylaws/2000/law0179.pdf


quote:

Historical Name: Massey Mausoleum
Construction Date: 1890-1894
Architect: E. J. Lennox
Contractor/Builder: Holbrook and Mollington, stone carvers
Additions/Alterations: 1967: crypt filled in; 1987, apse windows repaired;
1999: exterior repaired
Original Owner: Hart Massey, manufacturer
Original Use: Funerary (mausoleum)
Current Use*: Funerary (mausoleum); * this does not refer to
permitted use(s) as defined in the Zoning By-law
Heritage Category: Landmark Heritage Property (Category A)

Industrialist and philanthropist Hart Alberin Massey (1823-1896) commissioned the Massey mausoleum. In 1851, Massey took over the management of his father’s foundry and machine shop in Newcastle, Canada West (now Ontario). Following its incorporation as the Massey Manufacturing Company in 1870, the firm relocated to Toronto in 1879, producing agricultural implements on a sixacre site on King Street West near Strachan Avenue. The company grew through a series of mergers, including one with its chief rival, the A. Harris, Son and Company in 1891. Hart Massey served as the president of the renamed Massey-Harris Company (it became Massey-Ferguson in 1958 and was absorbed by the Varity Corporation in 1987). By the close of the 19th century, Massey-Harris employed hundreds and was the largest producer and exporter of its type in the British Empire.

Hart Massey acquired his plot in Mount Pleasant Cemetery in the early 1880s. Plans for the Massey Mausoleum followed the untimely deaths of his eldest and youngest sons, Charles Albert Massey (1848-1884) and Fred Victor Massey (1866-1890). The mausoleum was completed in 1894, along with two other memorials to his children: the Massey Music Hall and the Fred Victor Mission. In addition to Hart Massey and the sons who predeceased him, eight Massey family members and close associates are interred in the Mausoleum. Hart Massey’s only daughter, Lillian Massey Treble (1854-1915) is remembered for funding the University of Toronto’s Household Sciences Building.

Chester Daniel Massey (1850-1926) was the last surviving son and the administrator of Hart Massey’s will. In 1918, Chester Massey oversaw the creation of the Massey Foundation, whose philanthropic endeavours included the funding of Hart House and Massey College at the University
of Toronto (the latter sites are included on the City of Toronto Inventory of Heritage Properties).
Other members of the Massey family are buried in the triangle of land surrounding the Mausoleum,
including Hart Massey’s third son, Walter Edward Hart Massey (1864-1901), who served as the
president of the Massey-Harris Company prior to his death. The Massey Foundation maintains the
Massey Mausoleum.

Hart Massey engaged Toronto architect Edward James Lennox (1854-1933) to design the Massey Mausoleum. Following an apprenticeship with architect William Irving, E. J. Lennox formed a shortlived partnership with Frederick McCaw. During this interval, Lennox and McCaw won a competition for their plan for Queen’s Park, a project that was never realized but is an indication of
the architect’s familiarity with park design. Beginning in 1881, Lennox embarked on a solo practice that was one of the largest in Canada by 1885. While he closed his firm in 1917, Lennox’s interest in the field remained intent and, in 1931, he received accreditation as a certified architect.
Lennox’s association with the Massey family began in 1883 when he was awarded the commission
for the Massey Manufacturing Company’s head office building at 915 King Street West. At the same time, he devised the plans for a residence for Charles Massey at 519 Jarvis Street. Charles Massey died prior to the completion of the house. It was acquired by his brother, Chester, who raised his two sons there: Raymond Massey, the famed Hollywood actor, and Vincent Massey, Canada’s first native-born Governor General. Beginning in 1886, Lennox was occupied with the design and construction of Toronto’s Third City Hall (now known as Old City Hall) on Queen Street West.

During this critical period in his career, the buildings of American architect Henry Hobbs Richardson, whose interpretations of Romanesque architecture became known across North America, influenced Lennox. Romanesque arches and decorative detailing marked Lennox’s subsequent commissions through the end of the 19th century. His remaining projects for the Massey family, the Fred Victor Mission at Queen and Jarvis Streets (now demolished) and the Massey Mausoleum, bear the hallmarks of the style. The extant buildings are listed on the Inventory of Heritage Properties.

Correspondence between the architect and his client indicates that Hart Massey took an active interest in the plans for the mausoleum (Litvak, 38). Lennox consulted Massey on his decision to replace the simple Classical urn planned for the top of the structure with a sculpted figure evoking Christian symbolism. This detailing, combined with the church-like appearance of the structure, reflects Massey’s position as one of the leading Methodists in Toronto society.

The Massey Mausoleum is one of 20 family mausoleums (seven of which are partially entombed)
located in the west half of Mount Pleasant Cemetery. Classical temples inspired most of the designs.The Massey Mausoleum stands out among them as the largest and the most impressive of the two displaying Romanesque Revival styling.


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Psip
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Posted From: 68.60.45.70
Posted on Friday, June 16, 2006 - 9:44 pm:   Edit PostDelete Post   Move Post (Moderator/Admin Only)

The Ethel Corp building was the original GM Tech center.
It was later bought by Ray Witt of CMI and became the CMI Tech Center.
I had a tour of it when Ray owned it,,,, super cool. Many old dyno's and a cold room with a chassie dyno.
THe complex is huge. Many of the doors were welded shut to preserve what was in the rooms.
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Hornwrecker
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Posted From: 63.41.8.252
Posted on Friday, June 16, 2006 - 10:00 pm:   Edit PostDelete Post   Move Post (Moderator/Admin Only)

Wasn't that an Albert Kahn design? There's supposed to be a cool lobby to the bldg.

It's ETHYL, as in Tetra-Ethyl Lead.
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Livernoisyard
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Posted From: 69.242.223.42
Posted on Friday, June 16, 2006 - 10:22 pm:   Edit PostDelete Post   Move Post (Moderator/Admin Only)

Pump Ethyl Mertz? That's the only Ethyl I know other than this one.
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Aiw
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Posted From: 64.228.194.227
Posted on Friday, June 16, 2006 - 11:10 pm:   Edit PostDelete Post   Move Post (Moderator/Admin Only)

Hornwrecker, I was in the lobby, and it wasn't anything spectaular.
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Jjaba
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Posted From: 67.171.136.201
Posted on Saturday, June 17, 2006 - 1:20 am:   Edit PostDelete Post   Move Post (Moderator/Admin Only)

Any Ethyl bldg.s in Sarnia worth noting?

Thanks for the info. on Mr. Massey. Now we need to learn more than jjaba told us about Mr. Ferguson.

And remember, what Mr. Chase didn't know about coffee, Mr. Sanborn did.

jjaba.
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Aiw
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Posted From: 69.156.93.111
Posted on Saturday, June 17, 2006 - 7:48 am:   Edit PostDelete Post   Move Post (Moderator/Admin Only)

There are a few good lookin' 40's era building in Sarnia, in general. They are hard to photograph as they are on a busy highway.

Next time I'm up there, I'll look for one.
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Jjaba
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Posted From: 67.171.136.201
Posted on Saturday, June 17, 2006 - 4:47 pm:   Edit PostDelete Post   Move Post (Moderator/Admin Only)

We know AIW will go the extra risky mile for a good photograph, eh. Thanks.

jjaba.
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Bate
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Posted From: 71.101.227.115
Posted on Tuesday, June 20, 2006 - 8:17 am:   Edit PostDelete Post   Move Post (Moderator/Admin Only)

I like Mikem's "Pardon the angle" photo. Did the first class passengers spill their drinks?
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Sven1977
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Posted From: 209.220.229.254
Posted on Tuesday, June 20, 2006 - 10:47 am:   Edit PostDelete Post   Move Post (Moderator/Admin Only)

Did they build the Novi racecar at this factory or is the water tower just talking about Novi in general? I think A.J. Foyt drove one to an Indy win.




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Hornwrecker
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Posted From: 63.41.8.194
Posted on Thursday, June 22, 2006 - 11:05 pm:   Edit PostDelete Post   Move Post (Moderator/Admin Only)

From the 1910 Sanborn, the Autoparts Mfg Co, 1807 Trombley & Orleans, also in the complex of buildings are the Accessory Forging and the Auto City Oil Companies. I also have in my notes, but can't remember the source, that the Autopart Mfg built the King-Remick prototype in 1910, but I can't remember where I got it from or what that car was. Anyone?

Autopart Mfg Co 1910

From the 1949 aerial, the bldg outlined in green sure looks like there are remnants of the 1910 structure incorporated into it. The GTW RR freight station is still there, on the other side of the tracks is the Detroit White Lead Co.



I've been looking for a history for the Novi Roadster, but have only found info about Indy, and not about where they were made.
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Sven1977
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Posted From: 209.220.229.254
Posted on Friday, June 23, 2006 - 10:24 am:   Edit PostDelete Post   Move Post (Moderator/Admin Only)

I took the photos a few weeks ago at the the American History Museum in Washington D.C.






(Message edited by SVEN1977 on June 23, 2006)
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Hornwrecker
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Posted From: 63.41.8.158
Posted on Tuesday, June 27, 2006 - 9:47 pm:   Edit PostDelete Post   Move Post (Moderator/Admin Only)

I think I found the first Briggs plant, and it happens to be in the Village of Hamtramack. The first map is from 1910 and shows an under construction Briggs factory on Leuschner and the GTWRR tracks, just east of Jos Campau.

Briggs 1910

The next maps show Briggs factories A-D from 1915. This is just north of Dodge main, and before the viaduct was built over Jos Campau.


Briggs 1915 A & B

Briggs 1915 C & D

The Auto City Brewery is highlighted in green on the 2nd map.

Looking at a 1949 aerial, it appears that buildings A-C were incorporated into a single factory.

1949 Briggs aeiral

I'm assuming that this all got eaten up in the Poletown landgrab, as I can't find Denton or Leuschner on a recent street map. Any Hamtramack historians want to chime in, correct, or add info, as the case may be? I'm still trying to get this complex straight, was it Briggs in 1949, and later Chrysler, used by Dodge? I'll look into this a bit more...
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Mikem
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Posted From: 68.43.15.105
Posted on Tuesday, June 27, 2006 - 10:36 pm:   Edit PostDelete Post   Move Post (Moderator/Admin Only)

From first page of this thread:
https://www.atdetroit.net/forum/mes sages/5/39075.jpg

Burned down in the mid-1980's. See Lowell's post on page 2:

https://www.detroityes.com/gallery/ 00gallery-outofcontrol.htm
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Hornwrecker
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Posted on Tuesday, June 27, 2006 - 10:46 pm:   Edit PostDelete Post   Move Post (Moderator/Admin Only)

A more recent aerial showing that it wasn't incorporated into Poletown. I must have still been in the Navy when it burned down, thanks Mike.

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Mikem
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Posted on Tuesday, June 27, 2006 - 11:44 pm:   Edit PostDelete Post   Move Post (Moderator/Admin Only)

I'd like to know the history of the buildings in the lower left corner of that aerial. They are behind (west of) the modern offices of the Missant warehouse/trucking firm on Conant. The only good view of them is from the stands of Keystone Stadium:







The dark roofs in this view:

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Mikem
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Posted From: 68.43.15.105
Posted on Tuesday, June 27, 2006 - 11:51 pm:   Edit PostDelete Post   Move Post (Moderator/Admin Only)

Click to see a photo of Auto City Brewing, mentioned above.

However, doesn't the 3214 address place it farther south on McDougal?
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Livedog2
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Posted From: 24.223.133.177
Posted on Tuesday, June 27, 2006 - 11:58 pm:   Edit PostDelete Post   Move Post (Moderator/Admin Only)

Mikem, you said,

quote:

The only good view of them is from the stands of Keystone Stadium:


Do you mean Keyworth Stadium?

Livedog2
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Mikem
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Posted From: 68.43.15.105
Posted on Wednesday, June 28, 2006 - 12:03 am:   Edit PostDelete Post   Move Post (Moderator/Admin Only)

Yes, Keyworth is what I meant. Actually, which is Keyworth? The baseball or football stadium?
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Livedog2
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Posted From: 24.223.133.177
Posted on Wednesday, June 28, 2006 - 8:48 pm:   Edit PostDelete Post   Move Post (Moderator/Admin Only)

All those cars had to have license plates and here's where they are/were made.

Auto License Plate Assembly Line at Jackson Prison
license plates

Livedog2
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Kathleen
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Username: Kathleen

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Posted From: 140.244.107.151
Posted on Thursday, June 29, 2006 - 10:29 am:   Edit PostDelete Post   Move Post (Moderator/Admin Only)

Keep an eye out for Packards cruising around town this weekend.

"It's been about 50 years since Packard left the Motor City, but this weekend, the marque comes home, at least symbolically. To commemorate this golden anniversary, the Packard Club (officially, Packard Automobile Classics) will hold its annual national meet in Detroit, a festival that opens Saturday and stretches through the following week.

The various events, highlighted by the July 4 picnic at the old proving grounds in Shelby Township, are open only to club members, but the club's 200-plus Packards likely will be spotted on roads in Birmingham, Royal Oak, Pontiac and Rochester.

The meet is being organized by the Motor City Packards chapter of the national club. For information, see www.motorcitypackards.com."

Full article which includes some Packard history at: http://www.freep.com/apps/pbcs .dll/article?AID=/20060629/BUS INESS01/606290311/1014
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56packman
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Posted From: 129.9.163.234
Posted on Thursday, June 29, 2006 - 12:17 pm:   Edit PostDelete Post   Move Post (Moderator/Admin Only)

OK-Tony has a few things off-Packard BOUGHT Studebaker in 1954, as an early part of the George Mason-engineered merger of independants to be called "American Motors". Mason died after Hudson and Nash merged, after Packard acquired Stude for the big merger, which without Mason did not happen. What money Packard had was spent dry by Stude. A number of errors were made here in Detroit by Packard, but not to the $$$ amount Stude was losing. Packard would have had a hard time lasting beyond the late 50's--the days of being a stand-alone car company ended in the very early 50's. GM has lost money on Cadillac for years at a time, as Chrysler did with Imperial, Ford with Lincoln. They always had low and mid priced cars to sell in high volume to make it all a wash.
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Hornwrecker
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Posted From: 63.157.67.169
Posted on Sunday, July 02, 2006 - 8:39 pm:   Edit PostDelete Post   Move Post (Moderator/Admin Only)


quote:

I'd like to know the history of the buildings in the lower left corner of that aerial. They are behind (west of) the modern offices of the Missant warehouse/trucking firm on Conant. The only good view of them is from the stands of Keystone Stadium:




I asked a friend, who is a truck driver, and he said it was the Olsonite factory, maker of toilet seats. Looking at the 1915 Sanborn, it shows Swedish Crucible Steel Co. there at that time. Looking at the Olsonite corporate history at:

http://www.olsonite.com/html/tradition.php


quote:

Olsonite Seat Company was founded in 1910 in Detroit, Michigan by Nels L. Olson, an enterprising Swedish immigrant.

Initially, a plow shoe was developed and cast from steel in a newly opened foundry. The process which produced this innovative steel plow shoe influenced the original corporate name "Swedish Crucible Steel Company"




8801 Conant Ave is the address listed for Olsonite Corp.


Swedish Crucible Steel 1915

I don't know if any of the original buildings survived, or were incorporated into the buildings in your photos. There are a few other parts suppliers in the immediate area, which I'll post in the future.
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Mikeg
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Posted From: 69.136.155.244
Posted on Sunday, July 02, 2006 - 9:12 pm:   Edit PostDelete Post   Move Post (Moderator/Admin Only)


quote:

Actually, which is Keyworth? The baseball or football stadium?




It's the football stadium. I vividly remember a play from a St. Clement vs. St. Ladislaus HS varsity football game that was played there in the fall of 1966. In that game, St. Clement sophomore and future NFL Hall of famer Joe DeLamielleure rushed the punter, blocked the kick and took the punter's follow-through right in the groin!

Re: Olsonite - my dad was a plumber and he would only install Olsonite toilet seats! Nothing else compared quality-wise, in his estimation.
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Hornwrecker
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Posted on Sunday, July 02, 2006 - 9:22 pm:   Edit PostDelete Post   Move Post (Moderator/Admin Only)

I find it interesting that they went from horse shoes to toilet seats; perhaps they were comfortable in making things of that shape. That is if I'm interpreting what a plough shoe is correctly.

Here are a couple of old Packard photos, since the Packard Club will be in town this holiday.

Both are from around 1905, second one from WSU.





(Take note of the Bell Systems sign on the building in the lower left.)
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56packman
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Posted From: 65.185.132.134
Posted on Monday, July 03, 2006 - 11:56 pm:   Edit PostDelete Post   Move Post (Moderator/Admin Only)

Hornwrecker--we are indeed having a wonderful Packard convention this week. Huge turnout--The lure of coming back home. I took 121 people on two busses for tours today of historical automotive sites. We started at Ford Highland Park, then down John R to Ford Piquette, across Woodward to Cass, to the Fox theatre, toured them in the Fox, past the Skillman branch of the DPL, home of the NAHC, around Campus Martius, then up to Woodward to the new center area for lunch at taste fest. Then down east grand boulevard to the Packard plant. Things turned solemn when that came into view. down Concorde to I-94 then to Conner Ave and the site of the Briggs/Packard plant at Connor and E.Warren. Back home to Pontiac via Woodward. My other guest commentator did a fantastic job, and the Packard fans enjoyed the tour greatly. Many out of towners were shocked at parts of the city, yet saw the hope in the individual restoration projects we pointed out. Come by the Marriott any evening-a great array of Packards to see.
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Hornwrecker
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Posted on Tuesday, July 04, 2006 - 10:39 pm:   Edit PostDelete Post   Move Post (Moderator/Admin Only)

Glad to hear you've had a good convention.

Just to the southwest of the Swedish Crucible Steel Co was the Jeffery-Dewitt Company, makers of porcelain insulators and spark plugs on the corner of Butler and Chartier.

Jeffery-Dewitt Co 1915


quote:

The Jeffery-Dewitt Insulator Company, or more commonly referred to as 'JD', was founded in 1915 to be a subsidiary of the Jeffery-Dewitt Co. The Jeffery-Dewitt Co. built a special plant in Kenova, WV for manufacture of their unique suspension type. The Jeffery-Dewitt Co. became a subsidiary of the Champion Sparkplug Co. in 1921




1913 J-D spark plug ad

Was this where the old Champion plant was located? I remember visiting it when I was young, but can't remember where it was. (Not to be confused with the later factory behind the DWS 8 Mile water treatment plant.)
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Aiw
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Posted From: 64.228.201.51
Posted on Tuesday, July 04, 2006 - 11:05 pm:   Edit PostDelete Post   Move Post (Moderator/Admin Only)

There was a Windsor Brach of the Crucible Steel Co. From an industrial overview book of Windsor & Walkerville from 1913:

1
2

Olsonite also has a Windsor plant... I worked in the old Olsonite building (1950's era) in Windsor that was later the Wells Bus Co.
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Hornwrecker
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Posted on Wednesday, July 05, 2006 - 9:47 pm:   Edit PostDelete Post   Move Post (Moderator/Admin Only)

Just to the east of the SCS plant in 1915 was Vanguard Mfg, maker of automobile wind shields, which fronted on Conant. Above Vanguard was a coal yard that bordered the GT tracks. The building extended back a ways, but was on another sheet, and wasn't really worth trying to splice it together.

Vanguard Mfg 1915
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Aiw
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Posted From: 64.228.192.6
Posted on Wednesday, July 05, 2006 - 10:42 pm:   Edit PostDelete Post   Move Post (Moderator/Admin Only)

I love the "Japanning" room. There's a term that is never used anymore.
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Mikem
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Posted on Wednesday, July 05, 2006 - 11:15 pm:   Edit PostDelete Post   Move Post (Moderator/Admin Only)

Andrew, the building in your old photo has the exact same roof as the building in the background of the first photo I posted above - the same building on Hornwreckers' map of SCS. My view is looking SE from the stadium.

Champion Spark Plug was at 8825 Butler in 1935. I see the vice-president was J. A. Jeffery. Connection?

No listing for Vanguard Mfg in any of my Polks.

On the west side of Conant, going south from the GTRR, I have the Eureka Cushion Spring Corp at 8831, the Metal Mouldings Corp at 8825, and the Mavis Nu-Icy Bottling Co at 8775, all from 1935. However, not a single one is there in 1940.
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Mikem
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Posted on Friday, July 07, 2006 - 1:11 am:   Edit PostDelete Post   Move Post (Moderator/Admin Only)

From my shoebox archives, the core of Uniroyal making its last stand:

uniroyal
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Aiw
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Posted From: 67.71.66.63
Posted on Friday, July 07, 2006 - 7:06 am:   Edit PostDelete Post   Move Post (Moderator/Admin Only)

Mikem, if you read the description from the Windsor book, it talks about a future building "to occupy". I bet that they used a photo of the Detroit plant as filler...

I bet that is the same building in your photo above.
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Hornwrecker
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Posted From: 66.19.25.73
Posted on Tuesday, July 11, 2006 - 9:23 pm:   Edit PostDelete Post   Move Post (Moderator/Admin Only)

I also bet on it being the same building with the Euro-style end walls. I don't recall seeing any other old photos with the same style as the SCS one around Detroit. Swedish-Industrial Age? A couple mysteries got solved with the last few exchanges. I betting that the Vanguard map (from plans) turned into the Metal Moldings factory, if it ever got built.

This is the map of the Buffalo Carburetor Co. factory at 1120 Grand River and Stanton, 1910.


Buffalo Carburetor 1910

I can't find any info about them at all; the search terms come up with either millions of hits, or nothing, so far...
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Mikem
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Posted on Wednesday, July 12, 2006 - 9:07 pm:   Edit PostDelete Post   Move Post (Moderator/Admin Only)

I have nothing on Buffalo Carb either, but here's the north end of the building. My 1940 directory shows Grand River Chevrolet in this location.



The front end is an auto parts place, and the rest is wrapped in siding. From the Sanborn, it looks as if everything north of the chimney was added later.
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Mikem
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Posted on Wednesday, July 12, 2006 - 9:16 pm:   Edit PostDelete Post   Move Post (Moderator/Admin Only)

Remember the mystery of this factory at 6500 Mack, corner of Beaufait?



quote:

Also, old paint on the side of the Mack & Beaufait factory is barely readable. There are several layers, but I can make out the following words:

"Used, New, Rebuilt"
"All Guaranteed" and
"DA____ ___REST & CO"

It gave me the impression that it was a machinery dealer or remanufacturer.

MikeM




I think we determined it was originally a stove factory. Then I stumbled across this ad tonight from the 1967 Yellow Pages:

 Dave Demarest

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Hamtramck_steve
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Posted From: 68.252.125.198
Posted on Wednesday, July 12, 2006 - 9:38 pm:   Edit PostDelete Post   Move Post (Moderator/Admin Only)

Denton Avenue is still there in Hamtramck, but it doesn't go as far east as it used to. It cuts off now at about Klinger or Collins (using the street names circa 1947). You can reach Denton just south of the viaduct on Campau.

Leuschner is no longer, but I haven't been back along Denton in so long I don't remember if you can still see traces of it or not.

This was one of the areas searched for Hoffa back in '75-'76.

Miller, on the east side of Conant, used to be Leuschner, at least according to the map I have circa 1947.
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Kathleen
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Posted From: 69.14.122.57
Posted on Wednesday, July 12, 2006 - 10:08 pm:   Edit PostDelete Post   Move Post (Moderator/Admin Only)

The Hygeia Filter Company (manufacturers of water filters of all capacities) was located somewhere along Denton as well. My grandfather was the Secretary/Treasurer there for many years. Mom recalls visiting the place as a young child.

Back in the early 1980s, I found this old advertisement on the side of a building that was razed for the Cobo Center Expansion somewhere near Larned and First.
HygeiaFilter
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Mikem
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Posted on Wednesday, July 12, 2006 - 10:14 pm:   Edit PostDelete Post   Move Post (Moderator/Admin Only)

3422 Denton
Harry Marsh, secretary
Wm Mahoney, treasurer
circa 1940, maybe before your grandfather's time?
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Livedog2
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Posted From: 24.223.133.177
Posted on Wednesday, July 12, 2006 - 10:19 pm:   Edit PostDelete Post   Move Post (Moderator/Admin Only)

Great photo, Kathleen! It was great that you had the presence of mind to take that photo some 25 years ago.

Livedog2
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Hornwrecker
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Posted From: 66.19.18.81
Posted on Wednesday, July 12, 2006 - 10:50 pm:   Edit PostDelete Post   Move Post (Moderator/Admin Only)

Kathleen, I played around with your photo in PS, I'm not sure if it is a big improvement, but you can make out the lettering a bit better. Probably do more with a larger file size.



We're on a roll with solving some interesting mysteries. I might have to go over to the used machinery place and talk to the boys about Demarest, they've been in the business forever, that is if they're still alive.
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Livedog2
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Posted on Wednesday, July 12, 2006 - 10:56 pm:   Edit PostDelete Post   Move Post (Moderator/Admin Only)

That is excellent, Hornwrecker! Now, I can really read it well. I can't seem to get my version of PS to work that high a level. I guess it probably can but it just outsrips my knowledge of the program.

Livedog2
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Kathleen
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Posted From: 69.14.122.57
Posted on Thursday, July 13, 2006 - 6:22 am:   Edit PostDelete Post   Move Post (Moderator/Admin Only)

Mikem,

Thanks for posting that info. William Mahoney was my grandfather. He was with Hygeia for many years. Will have to ask my mom exactly when he retired.

Thanks, Hornwrecker, for PSing the photo. Yes, I had to reduce it a few times in order to post it. Thanks, Livedog2. Back in college, I was heavily into family genealogy, so when I saw the remnants of this painted advertisement, I had to take a photo!! To this day, I'm glad I got the shot before it disappeared forever.
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Livedog2
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Username: Livedog2

Post Number: 695
Registered: 03-2006
Posted From: 24.223.133.177
Posted on Friday, July 14, 2006 - 12:38 am:   Edit PostDelete Post   Move Post (Moderator/Admin Only)

That's got to be a special shot for you, Kathleen. I have a priceless shot like that of my mother, two sons and myself at Beth Olem Cemetery in Hamtramck before it became engulfed in the GM Factory Complex back in 1978 or 79 before my mother passed away.

Livedog2
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Livedog2
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Username: Livedog2

Post Number: 699
Registered: 03-2006
Posted From: 24.223.133.177
Posted on Friday, July 14, 2006 - 12:14 pm:   Edit PostDelete Post   Move Post (Moderator/Admin Only)

Does anyone know if tetraethyl lead was invented in Detroit at the Ford Motor Company?

Livedog2
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56packman
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Username: 56packman

Post Number: 452
Registered: 12-2005
Posted From: 129.9.163.233
Posted on Friday, July 14, 2006 - 3:04 pm:   Edit PostDelete Post   Move Post (Moderator/Admin Only)

Livedog2-NO, tetaethyl lead was found to be useful in eliminating knocking and making possible the raising of compression ratios (= more power) in internal combustion engines by Thomas Midgley, who worked under Charles Kettering at General Motors. If anything, old man Ford probably fought it, as he did hydraulic brakes.
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Livedog2
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Username: Livedog2

Post Number: 707
Registered: 03-2006
Posted From: 24.223.133.177
Posted on Friday, July 14, 2006 - 3:12 pm:   Edit PostDelete Post   Move Post (Moderator/Admin Only)

Over coffee this morning one of the guys was saying that GM invented tetraethyl lead but it didn't sound right so I thought I would ask here. Thanks for the info. Just goes to show how extrapolating with a little bit of information can be dangerous.

Livedog2
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56packman
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Username: 56packman

Post Number: 454
Registered: 12-2005
Posted From: 129.9.163.233
Posted on Friday, July 14, 2006 - 5:24 pm:   Edit PostDelete Post   Move Post (Moderator/Admin Only)

GM adapted TE lead for use in engines, rather than actually discovering it. TE lead also kept engine valves from welding themselves to the cylinder heads as compression/horsepower increased. We now install hardened valve seats in vintage engines (when rebuilding same)to compensate for the loss of the lead additive.
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Toolbox
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Username: Toolbox

Post Number: 946
Registered: 10-2003
Posted From: 69.14.125.129
Posted on Friday, July 14, 2006 - 11:51 pm:   Edit PostDelete Post   Move Post (Moderator/Admin Only)



1921 - The antiknock properties of tetraethyl lead (TEL) as a gasoline additive are discovered after a lengthy search by a team of General Motors research chemists. TEL is to be the principal product of Ethyl Corporation for more than 40 years.

1937 - TEL production begins in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, for Ethyl Gasoline Corporation.

1942 - Ethyl Gasoline Corporation changes its name to Ethyl Corporation to characterize a broader interest than just gasoline products.

1952 - Ethyl opens another plant in Pasadena, Texas.
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Livernoisyard
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Username: Livernoisyard

Post Number: 1073
Registered: 10-2004
Posted From: 69.242.223.42
Posted on Friday, July 14, 2006 - 11:58 pm:   Edit PostDelete Post   Move Post (Moderator/Admin Only)

I thought I posted this earlier. But in case it wasn't:

Ethyl Corporation

Ethyl Corporation is a fuel additive company headquartered in Richmond, Virginia. The company is a manufacturer, blender and distributor of fuel additives. Among other products, Ethyl Corporation distributes TEL (tetraethyl lead), a gasoline antiknock additive, via a marketing/sales agreement with Octel Corporation (Now know as Innospec) which is the world's last remaining supplier of TEL. Tetraethyl lead has been recognized as a contributor to soil, air and water lead pollution. Ethyl Corporation historically denied that TEL poses significant public health risks in excess of those associated with gasoline itself.

TEL was supplied for blending with raw gasoline in the form of "Ethyl Fluid", which blended Tetraethyl lead together with the lead scavengers ethylene dibromide and ethylene dichloride. Ethyl fluid contained a dye which would distinguish treated gasoline from untreated gasoline and discourage the diversion of gasoline for other purposes such as cleaning.

* Tetraethyl lead 61.45%
* ethylene dibromide 17.85%
* ethylene dichloride 18.80%
* Inerts & Dye 1.90%

In 1962, Albemarle Paper Manufacturing Company, in Richmond, borrowed $200 million and purchased Ethyl Corporation (Delaware), a corporation 13 times its size. Albemarle then changed its name to Ethyl Corporation. It is believed that General Motors thought to divest itself of "Ethyl Corporation" owning to concern about liabilities associated with TEL. 1962 transaction was the largest leveraged buyout until that time.

The Ethyl corporation expanding and diversifying during the 1970s and 1980s in response to the gradual decline of the market for TEL as the automotive industry shifted to un-leaded gasoline. In the late 1980s Ethyl began to spin off a number of divisions. The aluminum, plastics, and energy units became Tredegar Industries in 1989. In 1993, it spun off its life insurance company, First Colony Life, and then in 1994, the specialty chemicals business was spun off as an independent, publicly traded company named Albemarle Corporation.

In 2004, Ethyl Corporation changed its name to NewMarket Corporation, the parent company of Afton Chemical Corporation, manufacturer of lubricant and fuel additives, and Ethyl Corporation, a manufacturer and distributor of certain fuel additives, including TEL.
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Livedog2
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Username: Livedog2

Post Number: 712
Registered: 03-2006
Posted From: 24.223.133.177
Posted on Saturday, July 15, 2006 - 12:23 am:   Edit PostDelete Post   Move Post (Moderator/Admin Only)

Thanks for the clarification. I won my bet if you guys were around I'd buy you a beer. So, the best I do is say "THANKS."

This Bud's for you!

beer

Livedog2
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56packman
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Username: 56packman

Post Number: 455
Registered: 12-2005
Posted From: 65.185.132.134
Posted on Saturday, July 15, 2006 - 10:35 am:   Edit PostDelete Post   Move Post (Moderator/Admin Only)

LD2--thanks, but I don't drink that shit!

Molsen Canadian!
Labatt's Blue!


but then again, I do drink an occasional Old Style
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Bate
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Username: Bate

Post Number: 75
Registered: 02-2005
Posted From: 71.101.227.115
Posted on Saturday, July 15, 2006 - 9:44 pm:   Edit PostDelete Post   Move Post (Moderator/Admin Only)

Dave Demarest & Co. was a likely competitor of the Ivan Doverspike Co. - which still exists today over on Conner in the ex-Hudson/Cadillac plant. It's easy to find warehouses full of old machine tools and equipment all over Detroit, many belonging to Doverspike (according to the tags hanging on the equipment). More information and photos are back in the early pages of this thread. From their website www.doverspike.com


"Ivan Doverspike Company was founded in 1963 by Ivan Doverspike III. The business was operated at 1602 23rd Ave in Detroit. In 1972, the business became prosperous enough to move into a larger building, in a new location. The company went to 8840 Strathmoor St, also in Detroit. Once again ready to move, Ivan Doverspike began operating at 1600 Clay St from 1979 until 1993. At that time, the Ivan Doverspike family found the need to move to a larger plant because of its fast growth. This time, the company moved for good. So, in 1993 Ivan Doverspike Company moved to 9501 Conner, Detroit, MI 48213, the old General Motors Cadillac plant.

Ivan Doverspike Company is a precision screw machine rebuilder. The company provides high quality products and services to a world wide customer base that includes world leaders in the metal industry, numerous plastics companies, some of the largest appliance and automotive manufacturers."
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Hornwrecker
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Username: Hornwrecker

Post Number: 1327
Registered: 04-2005
Posted From: 66.19.18.178
Posted on Monday, July 17, 2006 - 10:25 pm:   Edit PostDelete Post   Move Post (Moderator/Admin Only)

Interesting about Doverspike, there are other machinery specialists around like Grinders Clearinghouse on 8 Mile, refurbishing our old machines and selling them overseas.

This is the Auto Crankshaft Co from the 1921 Sanborn, located at 560 Piquette.

Auto Crankshaft Co 1921

Auto Crank = yellow
Regal Motor = red
Fisher Body = blue

If you notice the two Regal warehouses right near the AC Co. Since this was after Regal went T/U, I'm wondering if the AC Co was formerly the main factory for Regal, since it is located where it is. I can't find any info on this company, so I don't know when it started, but I'll bet that this was elusive Regal plant.

Here's an aerial from WSU/VMC with the buildings on Piquette .

Piquette aerial photo

The DWP is Detroit Wax Paper, identified as a Fisher building on the Sanborn. I'll have to look into it a bit more, still standing as far as I know.
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Aiw
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Username: Aiw

Post Number: 5705
Registered: 10-2003
Posted From: 64.228.210.158
Posted on Thursday, July 20, 2006 - 7:47 pm:   Edit PostDelete Post   Move Post (Moderator/Admin Only)

OK... Here's a new one at least I don't think we've covered it. I couldn't find it in Hornwrecker's db...


How about the Joyce Manufacturing Company in Detroit?

His house in Windsor (I'll get photos soon) is up for sale, and his past was dreged up...

Frank Henderson Joyce, born and educated in Windsor (b. 1872 - d. Grand Rapids, MI 1956). At 16 he joined the firm of Armstrong & Graham in Detroit, a leading harness manufacturer, he rose to sales manager.

He partnered with Ben Gotfredson in forming the American Auto Trimming Company, with plants in Detroit, Walkerville (Windsor) & Cleveland. AATC painted auto bodies and suppied the trim and ornamental parts. In 1926, Joyce partnered with Hugh Chalmers of Chalmers Motor Cars to form the Joyce Manufacturing Company in Detroit. He headed this firm while retaining an interest in the Windsor branch of Gotfredson Ltd.
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Hornwrecker
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Username: Hornwrecker

Post Number: 1329
Registered: 04-2005
Posted From: 66.2.148.155
Posted on Thursday, July 20, 2006 - 9:51 pm:   Edit PostDelete Post   Move Post (Moderator/Admin Only)

I'll keep an eye out for it. That is one of those generic mfg names that you wouldn't know what it was if you found it, without some background info.

Looking at the db, I noticed that my post #1256, the Auto Parts Mfg Co, on Trombley and Orleans, was the factory where the Dodo Cyclecar was made in 1912. Now to find info on Dodo... yeah right.
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Livedog2
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Username: Livedog2

Post Number: 757
Registered: 03-2006
Posted From: 24.223.133.177
Posted on Wednesday, July 26, 2006 - 10:14 pm:   Edit PostDelete Post   Move Post (Moderator/Admin Only)

Does anyone have any information about a small shop/company called Advanced Plating located on either Klinger or Moran Sts. between Davison Ave. E. and 6 Mile Road or more precisely between Davison Ave. E. and Victoria St. on the near Eastside and just south of Hamtramck.

I think their specialty to the automotive business was plating for things like bumpers and door handles. Any information like the owners, number of employees, etc. would be good and photos would be great.

Livedog2
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Aiw
Member
Username: Aiw

Post Number: 5743
Registered: 10-2003
Posted From: 64.228.199.219
Posted on Thursday, August 03, 2006 - 8:29 pm:   Edit PostDelete Post   Move Post (Moderator/Admin Only)

I know this isn't Detroit, but I was in Grand Rapids today (without my camera, of course) when I passed this massive factory. It is at the juction of Alpine Ave. & Ann St. which is just south west of the I-96 & US 131 interchange.

It is a huge massive, 1920's era complex, and there are old Chrysler Blue parking lot signs on the main gate on Ann St. I am going to assume at one time it was a Chrysler plant.

Anyone know anything about it?

grr
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Aiw
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Username: Aiw

Post Number: 5744
Registered: 10-2003
Posted From: 64.228.66.131
Posted on Thursday, August 03, 2006 - 9:04 pm:   Edit PostDelete Post   Move Post (Moderator/Admin Only)

I think I answered my own question....

From an old Sandborn... Looks like it was oringally two factories. It belonged to GM, hence the similar blue. One of the last tennants was Lear, who evolved from GM Trim....

1
2
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Fergusonfan
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Username: Fergusonfan

Post Number: 1
Registered: 08-2006
Posted From: 69.179.120.42
Posted on Friday, August 04, 2006 - 6:22 pm:   Edit PostDelete Post   Move Post (Moderator/Admin Only)

I hope that you do not mind a thread on tractor factory. It was listed earlier with a great story about someone climbing over a fence and starting a tractor and driving it into a fence and house.
Anyway in 1948 Harry Ferguson Inc. built a tractor Factory called Ferguson park at 12601 Southfield RD. Is there any information such as blueprints original photos of the inside or outside. Does anyone ever remember being or driving by there? In 1953 to 1958 the factory made Massey-Harrison-Ferguson tractors and afer 58 till the 80's or so Massey Ferguson tractors.
We have started a club called Ferguson Enthusist of North America FENA and would like to find out any and all information on the factory. Any informaion would be appreciated.
thanks
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Sven1977
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Username: Sven1977

Post Number: 196
Registered: 04-2004
Posted From: 209.220.229.254
Posted on Monday, August 07, 2006 - 10:42 am:   Edit PostDelete Post   Move Post (Moderator/Admin Only)

A few weeks ago, I adventured up through Michigan's thumb. I found the Wills Sainte Claire Auto Museum in Marysville. At first, I drove buy not wanting to spend the time but then blind dedication to this thread drove me back and I spent and hour at the small museum. Alas, the factory was torn down six years ago. The car has an interesting history and the museum is worth an short detour if you are headed up to Port Huron.




Discuss Detroit » Hall of Fame Threads » Old Car Factories » Old Car Factories - 22
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