THE FORD MOTOR COMPANY MACK AVE PLANT
Henry Ford started the Ford Motor Company in 1903 in a rented manufacturing shop on Mack Avenue in Detroit, Michigan. Ford only spent about 18 months at the Mack ave location before the building proved to be to small for production and he had to move to a much larger location. Henry Ford was one of the few automotive pioneers who developed and improved successfully the transportation in the United States. Ford created one of the leading multinational automobile corporation in the world. So the least we could do is get something about this part of history right… Right?
After FMC moved from the building, multiple tenants would go on to use the building. Both automotive and none. Most notably the Columbia Motor Company. Sadly the original Mack avenue building burned down in 1941. The site was cleared and remains vacant to this day. Historians took an interest in wanting to rebuild the building, though not in its original standing size. But they ran into a number of problems trying to find the original location. Mack Ave is quite large. When checking the record the building was reported to be next to a rail line. Trouble was there where actually 3 recorded rail lines that crossed over Mack ave at the time. Offering the team 3 possible locations where the original building could have been located. To make matters worse in 1921, Detroit went though and reworked how addressed worked in the city. Long story short they had a one in three chance of getting it right and… OOPS!!
The replica was decided on and built in 1945 at the Greenfield Village open air museum in Ford’s home of Dearborn, Michigan. However, it is not an especially accurate replica, being only one fourth the size of the original factory and is intended as more of an idealized memory of the factory instead of something more true to life. To further complicate things, a photograph emerged of the building that would actually crack the case of where the building was located. The photo showed a never before seen angle of the building. You can see the Columbia Motor Company name still almost visible on the top of the building. Which would place this photo in the later 20s. If you look closely at the railroad switching tower next to the tracks, the street crossing semaphore in the up position, and the streetlamp next to it.
Here’s a photo taken from the same spot in the fall of 2013. Only one element from the older photo remains today: The old-fashioned streetlamp. However, one can easily make out the grade elevation in the street for the old Belt Line rail crossing and the patchwork in the pavement, although the rails were pulled up years ago. The Belt Line ran parallel to and between Bellevue and Beaufait Streets from the Detroit River to Hamtramck. For those not familiar with the area like my self, that isn’t just a block away. It’s actually miles away from the location where the replica ended up. OOPS!
To look up the site of the Ford Mack Ave. plant yourself using Google or other online mapping systems, search 6520 Mack Ave., Detroit, MI 48207.
(UPDATE: By mid-2018 the original streetlamp on Mack Ave. had been removed.) I will be honest. If I was the museum I would have been down there trying to get my hand one it.
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