Detroit Automotive Ruins Tour

The Arsenal of Democracy

A good friend of mine, Pete Hollinshead, is an automotive history buff. More than a buff really, he knows stories behind what you find in history books. I met Pete while working at Chrysler when he was brand manager for jeep.com and I was operations manager for ChryslerFinancial.com. Pete left Chrysler in August 2008, we’ve met at our neighborhood library to visit. We both miss the social aspect of work. I always knew Pete was into automotive history, but I had no idea to what depth until recently.

Pete has been giving tours of the Detroit Automotive industry ruins to anyone interested. There are so many stories behind the stories of the automotive history. I asked Pete for a tour and to help in gathering and writing some of those stories.

On May 13, 2009 Pete took my husband Jim and I on a tour of what was the envy of the world, the heart of the early 1900’s automotive industry. Places now ghost towns that used to be vibrant and alive, full of business and prosperity. Where the middle class was born and the rich ordered cars made to order. Bespoke vehicles, can you imagine.

We visited Dodge Main, Ford Model T plant, American Axle, the Russel industrial center that used to be Murray Body. We passed Pole town, named for the community GM bought to build its plant; a huge sprawling facility. The Ford Piquette building built in 1904. It was the prototype for the assembly line. There men walked the line, the line did not move. The most fascinating ruin was the old Packard plant in the Milwaukee Junction. Milwaukee Junction was the heart of the automotive industry in the early 1900’s. Packard was a brand with the cache of Lexus or Mercedes. In the beginning of the automotive industry, the manufacturing model was outsourcing. Packard built Chassis. You could order the frame, the engine, transmission. Then you had a catalog to order the body from a number of body manufacturers. What you actually ordered were the body components. There was a good deal of customization. You literally designed your own car. Truly a bespoke business model. Packard was an elite brand priced for the wealthy. You’d order your car like a fine suit. They only built around 100 cars a year.

During WWII Packard built Rolls Royce Merlin engines for our fighter planes. Detroit and the automotive industry was called the ‘Arsenal of Democracy’. Without the industrial might of Detroit Germany would have won WWII. It was surreal to stand outside and to walk around the decrepit ruins that used to be the pinnacle of luxury and technology in another era. You could almost imagine what it must have been like so many years ago. The Packard plant ruins must be a mile long and they’re as high as eight stories. Vehicles moved from floor to floor in an assembly line using huge hoists. Giant sliding doors separated sections of the assembly. Imagine at lunch, thousands of people leaving the factory to eat at the restaurants, shop in the stores or enjoy the beautiful Michigan day. Today hardly a soul lives in the Milwaukee Junction.

Detroit is a melting pot of humanity. The waves of immigrants influenced the culture and fabric of life in the city. The first wave was from Europe. Germans, Finnish, Dutch, French, English, Irish. The next wave was from Eastern Europe, Poles, Ukraine, and Serbs. In the 1930’s and 40’s blacks immigrated to Detroit from the south to escape oppression. Each culture brought with it their customs and cuisines, their religions and values. There were micro cultures. Each wave of immigrants built their own churches and clustered together. You’ll find four catholic churches in one area. One for Germans, one for the Irish, one for the English and so on. Many of the churches and buildings still stand. Many are crumbling like the Packard plant.

There’s a bridge over the road by the plant, it used to have the Packard emblem on it and the tag line ‘ Ask the man who owns one’ above the door to the plant. During the depression, Packard decided to ‘go down market’, to produce a cheaper car for a larger audience. They built the 120 model. The 120 had the Packard quality, and looked like a Packard but it was at a lower price point. This move marked the demise of Packard. They lost their cache and exclusivity among the wealthy.

Their timing was off. In 1941, they built and introduced the Clipper. Then came the war and they had to retool for the war effort. Four years later, after the war, they reintroduced the Clipper. They sold a lot, and even through the late 1950’s they sold more Packards that GM sold Cadillac’s but the management was too conservative. The new Clipper design for 1949-1950 was nick-named ‘the pregnant clipper’ . They had some supplier problems when Chrysler bought Briggs one of their body suppliers. What finally killed Packard were quality problems.

In 1952- 53, Packard brought in Jim Nance to run the company. He was talented and brilliant, but he saw the multi floored Packard plant as an albatross. He moved manufacturing to a new facility that was nicknamed ‘the cracker box’. It was just too small. It was so small men couldn’t move around, it was dangerously close. Quality suffered. The final Packards ever produced were beautifully designed with amazing engineering. Bu they fell apart and by 1956 the public had had enough.

Today the Packard plant ruins are stripped of almost all metal. A few frames remain with shards of broken glass. A musty smell exudes from the entry ways filled with garbage. Strange things like a boat, computer equipment, tires, shoes and plush toys. We didn’t see any vagrants, bodies or animals. Packard is the most decrepit.

We also went to the Rouge plant which is still operational. Raw materials go into the plant and cars come out. Raw materials like steel, rubber. Huge piles of coal sit ready to heat the furnaces to melt the steel , which is then rolled and formed and cut and assembled. Ford Rouge is the only plant where raw materials go in and a finished car comes out.

Outside the Rouge complex is a memorial. There’s a bigger than life bronze statue of Henry Ford. Along the courtyard are etched marble photos of historical events in Ford’s history. The images are not all favorable to Ford. They tell an amazing story. Then there’s the bridge where ‘the battle of the overpass’ took place. This is the very place where the UAW was born. Workers battled with Henry Ford’s goons and won the right to fair work conditions and pay. Since then the UAW has grown too strong and fallen out of favor, but there is still a need for unions. There’s a need for bargaining strength for the small and weak against the strong and rich who hold all the advantages. That’s another story.

Henry Ford while no philanthropist did see the benefit in paying his employees well. You could say he was the father of the middle class. He was the first to pay his workers enough so that they could afford to buy his products. He paid them enough so that they could afford to buy his cars and one of his homes. The basis of the Ford family’s wealth is the belief that the good of many is most profitable; much more profitable than today’s culture of ‘everyone for themselves’.

There are so many stories about what it was like to work in the automotive industry in its hey days. I’ll end with one of the more fun stories. Back in the day before automated assembly lines and business practice offices, anything was possible. One worker sitting in his office with the window open and the oscillating fan blowing turned his head just in time to see his fan fall out the window. It fell four stories right onto the hood of his boss’ brand new Cordoba. Bummer. So he called his pal at the factory. Hey Joe I need a favor. Yeah what? I need a dark blue Cordoba hood. My fan fell out the window on my boss’s new Cordoba. So he took the Cordoba to the plant and they installed a new hood on it that day. Those were the days.

If you have a story of life in the automotive industry during its heyday please write in the comments.

Packard - 'Ask the man who owns one'

Street view of the Packard Plant

Packard Ruin

The strangest things were discarded in the Packard ruins. This boat has a 2008 license

Shoes... and plush toys

Raw materials go in and cars come out

Rouge - The Battle of the Overpass took place here. Ford workers took on Ford goons for safe working conditions and fair pay

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