Ford Motor Company Lamp Factory | |
---|---|
Location | 26601 W. Huron River Drive Flat Rock, Michigan |
Coordinates | 42°06′00″N83°17′40″W / 42.10000°N 83.29444°W |
Built | 1924 |
Architect | Albert Kahn |
Designated | 2008 |
The Ford Motor Co. Lamp Factory in Flat Rock, Michigan, was one of Henry Ford's village industries, which were small rural factories. It was the product of a unique collaboration between industrialist Ford and his lead designer, Albert Kahn. Albert Kahn Associates is a large Detroit firm that did extensive early and groundbreaking architectural design work for the Ford Motor Company.
Ford systematically acquired land, an existing dam on the Huron River, and water rights in the area where the old Metler and Diekman Mills stood. These rights along with over 200 acres (81 ha) from the George Case farm north and west of the mill race helped to comprise the eventual 568 acres (230 ha) that Ford eventually would own. Construction of a factory and a 385-foot (117 m) dam were carried out during 1921 and 1922. The dam had a fourfold purpose: to serve as a power plant, retain water in connection with the newly built water filtration plant, and to serve as a railroad bridge and a road for the passage of cars. Together the factory, dam/bridge, and water filtration plant represent a comprehensive program for the improvement of Flat Rock.
The factory, built by Stone & Webster, Inc., was one of several similar-appearing factories built for Ford, including others in Saint Paul, Minnesota, Green Island, New York, and Iron Mountain, Michigan.
Large turbines were once situated within the factory building. The eastern end of the plant was suspended from the land over water running through the mill race below. A photo from the 1930s shows this equipment setting in situ. Water power first generated was about 700 kilowatts.
Construction of the Ford complex had a profound and immediate impact on the residents of the area. The Village of Flat Rock was chartered on October 19, 1923. The following month the first headlamp was produced at the plant. So village and industry grew side-by-side.
Products the factory made included headlights, taillights, and interior light shells, reflectors, and lamp sockets. Five hundred men working two shifts at the plant could produce half a million headlights a month. During World War II, all of the 26 or so village industries were converted to participate in the war effort. The Flat Rock plant which produced head- and taillights, continued to produce these during the war, but for army trucks, Jeeps, tanks, the universal carrier, and the armored car. The Flat Rock plant also manufactured junction boxes for the B-24 bomber.
Benefits of having the Ford factory in the village of Flat Rock were numerous. First, there were the jobs created. Employment rose from 50 workers in 1924 to 500 by 1925 and a peak of 1,200 people in 1929. In wages alone, over a half-million dollars in wages were paid in the peak years of 1929 and 1930. Approximately a third of the tax revenue for the village of Flat Rock was also generated by the plant.
Another benefit came from the water filtration plant. This produced water for the factory, but also for the communities of Flat Rock, Rockwood, and South Rockwood. The original filtration plant built in the 1920s was sold to the then City of Flat Rock in 1951 and continued to operate until 1957 when a new plant was built on the island, directly opposite and to the south of the Ford plant. This filtration plant too was eventually abandoned, though has not been demolished due to prohibitive costs associated with demolition.
Commentators attribute the demise of the village industries concept, which the Flat Rock plant was part of, to a variety of factors including company leadership not understanding the value or money-making potential of these enterprises, obsolescence of facilities, and most prominently – unionization (Siegel).
Production at the Flat Rock Head & Tail Light Plant ceased in 1950, and operations were moved to the larger Monroe factory. In 1950 the vacant Flat Rock plant was sold to Moynahan Bronze Company that was then located in Detroit and which subsequently moved. This company produced furniture for Pullman cars, architectural molding, and parts for aircraft. The firm would occupy the plant from 1951 to 1972. Stearns Manufacturing owned and operated the plant from 1972 to 1981, at which time the present owner, Flat Rock Metal Inc., leased the building. The company has since purchased it and has occupied the building to the present time (2018).
Flat Rock is a city in Wayne County, Michigan, United States, with a small portion of the city extending into Monroe County. At the 2020 census, the population was 10,541.
The Ford Model T is an automobile that was produced by the Ford Motor Company from October 1, 1908, to May 26, 1927. It is generally regarded as the first mass-affordable automobile, which made car travel available to middle-class Americans. The relatively low price was partly the result of Ford's efficient fabrication, including assembly line production instead of individual handcrafting. The savings from mass production allowed the price to decline from $780 in 1910 to $290 in 1924. It was mainly designed by three engineers, Joseph A. Galamb, Eugene Farkas, and Childe Harold Wills. The Model T was colloquially known as the "Tin Lizzie".
Albert Kahn was an American industrial architect who designed industrial plant complexes such as the Ford River Rouge automobile complex. He designed the construction of Detroit skyscrapers and office buildings as well as mansions in the city suburbs. He led an organization of hundreds of architect associates and in 1937, designed 19% of all architect-designed industrial factories in the United States. Under a unique contract in 1929, Kahn established a design and training office in Moscow, sending twenty-five staff there to train Soviet architects and engineers, and to design hundreds of industrial buildings under their first five-year plan. They trained more than 4,000 architects and engineers using Kahn's concepts. In 1943, the Franklin Institute posthumously awarded Kahn the Frank P. Brown Medal.
The Huron River is a 130-mile-long (210 km) river in southeastern Michigan, rising out of the Huron Swamp in Springfield Township in northern Oakland County and flowing into Lake Erie, as it forms the boundary between present-day Wayne and Monroe counties. Thirteen parks, game areas, and recreation areas are associated with the river, which passes through the cities of Dexter, Ann Arbor, Ypsilanti, Belleville, Flat Rock and Rockwood that were developed along its banks.
The Aerocar is an American automobile that was built from 1906 until 1908 in Detroit, Michigan. Backed by Henry Ford's former partner, coal merchant Alexander Malcomson, the short-lived company offered an air-cooled four-cylinder luxury car which sold for $2,800.
Flat Rock Assembly Plant, formerly known as the Michigan Casting Center (1972–1981), Mazda Motor Manufacturing USA (1987–1992) and AutoAlliance International (1992–2012), is a Ford Motor Company assembly plant located at 1 International Drive in Flat Rock, Michigan in Metro Detroit.
The Highland Park Ford Plant is a former Ford Motor Company factory located at 91 Manchester Street in Highland Park, Michigan. It was the second American production facility for the Model T automobile and the first factory in history to assemble cars on a moving assembly line. It became a National Historic Landmark in 1978.
The LincolnMark VIII is a grand touring luxury sport coupe that was marketed by Lincoln from the 1993 to 1998 model years. The first generation of the Mark series branded entirely as a Lincoln, the Mark VIII again served as a counterpart of the Ford Thunderbird and Mercury Cougar. Though maintaining its traditional brand rivalry with the Cadillac Eldorado, the Mark VIII was also developed to become more competitive against luxury coupes from automakers around the world.
The Ford Piquette Avenue Plant is a former factory located within the Milwaukee Junction area of Detroit, Michigan, in the United States. Built in 1904, it was the second center of automobile production for the Ford Motor Company, after the Ford Mack Avenue Plant. At the Piquette Avenue Plant, the company created and first produced the Ford Model T, the car credited with initiating the mass use of automobiles in the United States. Prior to the Model T, several other car models were assembled at the factory. Early experiments using a moving assembly line to make cars were also conducted there. It was also the first factory where more than 100 cars were assembled in one day. While it was headquartered at the Piquette Avenue Plant, Ford Motor Company became the biggest U.S.-based automaker, and it would remain so until the mid-1920s. The factory was used by the company until 1910, when its car production activity was relocated to the new, bigger Highland Park Ford Plant.
Downriver is the unofficial name for a collection of 19 cities and townships in Wayne County, Michigan, south of Detroit, along the western shore of the Detroit River.
The Ford River Rouge complex is a Ford Motor Company automobile factory complex located in Dearborn, Michigan, along the River Rouge, upstream from its confluence with the Detroit River at Zug Island. Construction began in 1917, and when it was completed in 1928, it was the largest integrated factory in the world, surpassing Buick City, built in 1904.
Willow Run Transmission was a General Motors factory in Ypsilanti Township, Michigan. Acquired by GM in 1953, it produced Hydramatic and other automatic transmissions for use in vehicles built by General Motors and other automakers. The factory first opened in 1941 as the Ford Willow Run facility, which built B-24 Liberator bombers during World War II, and its original building was designed by noted architect Albert Kahn.
The New Amsterdam Historic District is a historic district located in Detroit, Michigan. Buildings in this district are on or near three sequential east-west streets on the two blocks between Woodward Avenue and Second Avenue. It was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 2001.
The Piquette Avenue Industrial Historic District is a historic district located along Piquette Street in Detroit, Michigan, from Woodward Avenue on the west to Hastings Street on the east. The district extends approximately one block south of Piquette to Harper, and one block north to the Grand Trunk Western Railroad Line. It was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 2004.
The Lincoln Motor Company Plant was an automotive plant at 6200 West Warren Avenue in Detroit, Michigan, later known as the Detroit Edison Warren Service Center. The complex was designated a National Historic Landmark in 1978, due to its historic association with World War I Liberty engines and the Lincoln Motor Company. However, the main structures were demolished in 2003 and NHL designation was withdrawn in 2005.
The Ford Valve Plant is a factory building located at 235 East Main Street in Northville, Michigan. The plant was built as part of Henry Ford's vision of decentralizing manufacturing and integrating it into rural communities. It was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1995.
Henry Ford's Village Industries were small factories located in rural areas of Michigan. Ford developed his Village Industries in part to provide farm workers a stable source of income during the winter months.
The Ford Motor Company - Columbus Assembly Plant is a historic building in Downtown Columbus, Ohio. The Ford plant was constructed in 1914, to designs by John Graham. The plant operated until 1939. In later years, it became the Kroger Co. Columbus Bakery, operating until 2019. The building was sold in 2020, and is planned to be redeveloped into a large residential complex, announced in 2021. The building was added to the National Register of Historic Places and Columbus Register of Historic Properties in 2021.
Julius Kahn was an American engineer, industrialist, and manufacturer. He was the inventor of the Kahn system, a reinforced concrete engineering technique for building construction. The Kahn system, which he patented in 1903, was used worldwide for housing, factories, offices and industrial buildings. He formed his own company, Trussed Concrete Steel Company, as a manufacturing source for his inventions. He also founded United Steel Company and was chairman of Truscon Laboratories.
Long Beach Assembly is a former Ford Motor Company assembly plant located at the Cerritos Channel on Terminal Island, at 700 Henry Ford Avenue in Long Beach, Southern California. It operated from 1930 through 1958.