History Ford Factory picture thread,.... post here.........

My grandfather moved to Detroit in 1910 and worked with Edward Gray, Chief Engineer to Henry Ford, who also worked with Albert Kahn in the design of the Highland Park Model T plant- this photo is of the craneway in the plant. If you look closely to the left, third floor, you can see completed cars ready to drop out of the factory. A stack of brooms are to the right, second floor. For some reason, rarely was the craneway shown in any old photos. Grandpa left Detroit in 1919 then returned to work for Edward Gray and Gar Wood in 1937, at Grayhaven. He was an engineer, Elmer LeSuer. (Updated the photo as the link was 'dead'.)

 

camphoneguy ... great first post! ... very cool photograph! ... Welcome to the H.A.M.B.!

 

Crazy! I always knew chicks had to be putting Mopars together.

 

I'm pretty sure the pic camphone guy posted is of one of the buildings that still exists. If you go to Google maps look at a view of Woodward Ave and Manchester, that's where the Highland Park plant was located. There are two administration buildings, one was the world headquarters of Ford for crying out loud and its just sitting there rotting. The McDonalds is in the footprint of the powerhouse and the rest of the Model T Plaza shopping area takes up the actual footprint of the plant. However if you look north across John R you'll see one of the shipping/receiving buildings in the above photo.

 

Here's one of them thar fancy movin' pictures of a Ford Factory ...

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Thanks hemi32. You may glad to know that dad worked at the old Dodge Main plant in Detroit- long auto history in the family. The video is cool. I always wonder if I'd see grandpa in one of those but I think he'd have been in an office most of the time. And did notice that looked like the craneway that they did the interview in. My great-uncle worked for Ford at River Rogue so interesting to hear the stories about others working there. One of my favorite stories Uncle Floyd had was he having lunch on a hot summer day- finishing up and resting his head only to see a pair of shining black shoes approach him. Without ever looking up, Uncle Floyd simply said, "A man shouldn't eat too much on a hot summer day!" Henry Ford then continued his walk of the plant, apparently aware that Uncle Floyd was a hard worker and not sluffing off.

Grandpa's first car, of course, was a Frod.

Now on to dad and the Old Dodge Main plant in Hamtramck.

Dad worked there until they tore it down-

Dodge Main, coming down, Building Four and Body Building
My brother still works for Chrysler, at the Jefferson plant.

 

How did this turn into a Chrysler picture thread?

 

The groundwork was set on the first post...

Plymouths started popping up by post #15, Chryslers didn't appear until #35.

 

subscribed

 

tuckers.....

http://images.google.com/images?hl=en&q=tucker+factory+source:life

 

and '59 chevrolets at tarrytown....

http://images.google.com/images?hl=...e:life&btnG=Search&aq=f&aqi=&aql=&oq=&gs_rfai=

 

Well,... Enough time has gone by that you guys should have been able to find some more cool pictures,..... Soooo, what cha' got ??????

 

these were posted on the other great picture thread

 

one more

 

Cool thread

 

That pic of the No.1 car built at Mahawtan (sp?) in July '55 is of a '55 Ford that has Fairlane side trim and a large Ford crest a'la Mainline/Customline on the hood and has to be near the end of '55 production. I know what they say about using up what was on hand at the end of a model year, but I'm surprised the QC people didn't catch that since the smaller crest and Fairlane script were the same for '56.

 

Please sir, we need more.

 

I worked at the Louisville Ford plant on the "Frame Line" from
1965 to 1969.Was paid $3.68 an hour. It was NOT a fun job !!!!!

 

Awesome thread! I especially liked the video posted!

 

And out the door they went...

 

it breaks my heart to see our big industrial machine laying in ruins. gone are the days of hard work and pride on a grand scale.
great photos.

 

The trouble with old pics of Highland Park is that they always make me want to restore a Model T.

Great pics, fellas. Thanks.

-Dave

 

All you ever wanted to know about old car factories and pics of old factories.

http://atdetroit.net/forum/messages/6790/78791.html