(
Satellite)
HISTORY
- The Ford Motor Company’s first purpose-built factory. Previously space was rented on Mack Ave.
- Ford Models B, C, F, K, N, R, S, and T were assembled here.
- The Ford Model T was developed here, introduced in 1908 as a 1909 model.
- The first 12,000 Model Ts were assembled here and shipped out by railroad.
- Ford Motor Company relocated to its new Highland Park Plant in 1910, selling the Piquette building to Studebaker in 1911.
- Studebaker used it for automobile production until 1933.
- The building was occupied by Minnesota Mining and Manufacturing Company and Cadillac Overall Company until purchased by Heritage Investment Company in 1989.
- It was sold in 2000 to the Model-T Automotive Heritage Complex, Inc., (doing business as) the Ford Piquette Avenue Plant, that restored and now operates the historic site as a museum.
With all of that square feet, the museum has big event spaces. Here is a space "decorated" with an antique car collection.
They have rooms with a seating capacity of 55, 130 and 250 people for thousands of dollars. [
FordPiquettePlant_chart]
"The Ford Piquette Avenue Plant is a nonprofit corporation dedicated to the preservation of the birthplace of the Model T and the interpretation and celebration of Detroit’s automotive heritage and spirit of innovation. The Ford Piquette Avenue Plant was dedicated as a MotorCities National Heritage Area site in 1996. The Plant was placed on the U.S. National Register of Historic Places in 2002 and listed as a Michigan State Historic Site in 2003. The FPAP site was deemed a U.S. Historic District Contributing Property in 2004 and declared a U.S. National Historic Landmark in 2006." [
SavingPlaces]
 |
HistoricDetroit_renderings
"The architects rendering of the new Ford Piquette Plant. The power house to the right was probably demo'ed in the 1930s or 40s - Photo of a historic rendering taken at the Museum." |
 |
HistoricDetroit_historic
"Ford Piquette Plant, Workers test driving cars outside the plant, ca. 1906 - Photo of a historic photo taken at the Museum" |
"Now, with investors’ approval of $76,500 for the new plant, Ford had a home of his own — and it stood in the heart of Detroit’s most promising industrial neighborhood. Milwaukee Junction was already alive with innovation. Rail lines crisscrossed the district, making it a natural distribution hub. Nearby, manufacturers like Cadillac, Packard, Brush, Hupp, Regal, and Anderson Electric were all experimenting with the future of transportation. Carriage makers were reinventing themselves as auto body builders, and metal shops were learning to stamp and shape steel for machines that had never existed before....Between its brick walls, Ford workers assembled the Models B, C, F, K, N, R, and S - but something bigger was brewing. Hidden behind closed doors, in a guarded “experimental room,” a small team worked in secrecy. By 1908, that work became the Ford Model T - a car designed not just for the wealthy, but for ordinary families. The first 12,000 Model Ts were built here and sent out across the country by rail, rolling quietly into history." [
HistoricDetroit]
This
post inspired this research, but it contains a bogus AI photo. So what else is bogus?
