Highlander, Thank you for adding your insight and perspective on the Packard story, and for answering my question about the whereabouts of the concrete grill.
1924 Packard Single Eight Custom Victoria parked in front of the plant on East Grand Boulevard. Note the front entrance in the background.
Thanks, Highlander, for your comments on Detroit and the photos which, I'm sure, have inspired lots of netsearches about the Jesse Vincent car. I worked for Hudson's Department Store for a while...
An early postcard of the Packard plant -- the street running from foreground to background is East Grand Boulevard.
Rare shot of the Packard overpass over East Grand Boulevard under construction, 1939. Looking north up Concord Ave.
Here is an update on the property. According to an article in Old Cars Weekly the 40 acre site was sold in an online auction to satisfy a tax lein. A woman in Texas was the high bidder at $6 million. She has 6 months to demolish the buildings or the property will be seized by the local government. It will be interesting to see if she follows through on the purchase.
Frank, you are a little behind...she defaulted and it went to the 2nd highest bidder, for 2 million, they defaulted , and they are now on the third highest bidder at 450 K....and it looks like this one may stick...Shawn
Thanks Shawn, If it does go through more time will be needed for the demolition than 6 months. This is very interesting to me so post any new info you may come across. The same article stated some group is trying to put a stop to the demolition of a Ford Motor Company plant that built Model Ts but FoMoCo says their plan is moving forward.
A local news blog, The Motor City Muckraker, is reporting that scrappers have been trying to take down the water tower at the Packard plant. That could be fraught.
Even these are becoming rare. 10 years ago every Monte Carlo and Caprice in Mi and southern Ont wound up in Detroit. Most of them received a lift kit right away (weather 68" rims could be afforded or not) and then promptly crashed in to a pole or pedestrian. Six or seven years ago salvage yards like Ryan's on Hubble would receive 50 of these a week. In 07 some nice young men tried to relieve me of my extremely low 94 caprice in Midtown D. Luckily, their Taurus was no match for my big v8 beast.
Along with the Proving Grounds up in Utica, Packard had a small test track adjacent to the plant. It was roughly near Harper and Mt. Elliott where I-94 runs through now.
A little known fact unless you're deep into the Packard thing, all V-12s from the classic era were driven for 250mi before being released to the customer. The driver then initialed a paper tag or sticker with an "AF" number on it, placed usually on the passenger side glove box under/behind the instrument panel. I've saved a few of those AF tags and placed them back on the new boxes in restoration, but I don't have a picture handy. Perhaps that track shown was better than hauling them out to Utica?
Exactly, that's what I've assumed as well. I think Utica was used more for when privacy and isolation were called for. Thanks for the test tag info, very interesting.
Here is another view of the overpass on East Grand Boulevard under construction in April 1939. Shows much of the same area as the current-day drone video above.
the saga continues..... http://blog.hemmings.com/index.php/...-wants-another-3-5-million-for-it/?refer=news
I worked in the photo department of Packard during 1943 and 1944, when they build the engines for the P-41 Mustang, and for PT Boats. It's sad to see what has happened to Packard and Detroit. "Detroit, then and now", www.efn.org/~hkrieger/detroit.htm
Thank you Mr. Krieger for your time posting this important and very interesting Detroit information. If I live to be ninety one years old I hope I still have your ability to recollect my Carolina history.
I agree thanks Herman for your piece on Detroit. My grandfather Barney Pollard worked in the Packard Experimental Department from 1913 until Armistice day in 1918 when he went into business for himself (trucking and excavating Downtown Detroit). He worked as an engine tester and worked on the race cars they built in the teens at the Packard plant. We talked about his time at Packard and I wrote about it in a biography I wrote on my grandfather a few years ago. I ended up buying one of the racing engines shortly after he died (the #1 Liberty 299 cubic inch SOHC V-12) and a few bits of what was left of the race car. In the 80s I did paint projects for GM in the Gemmer gear building across the way from the Packard Plant (on Mt Elliott). Spent some time walking around the Packard Plant and even stored my sister's 1923 Packard in one of the rental spaces there during the 80s. Not surprisingly it was stolen and never recovered. I grew up in Detroit and in the 60s I used to take a bus downtown to Hudsons to shop. If kids made a similar trip like that today their parents would be locked up. Sad what has happened to much of Detroit. Hopefully it makes real comeback.
Jim, At the top of the building at Packard, where the photo dept. was located, there was a storage room filled with spare parts of the Liberty engine that was made by Packard during the first World War. After I left Detroit in 1950, I worked in the lab of a paint company in California. My specialty was formulating lacquers and air-drying enamels for automobiles.
Probably 30+ years ago now, the local Trans Am club used the property for car shows and I was lucky enough to get to drive on that small test track at the old factory. It was drivable but starting to deteriorate even then. Still a cool piece of automotive history.