MANUFACTURING FREIGHT CARS & AUTOS FOR 150 YEARS
Few sites in Southwest Detroit provide more insights into the city’s industrial evolution than those that were established on 46 acres south of Michigan Avenue. American Car and Foundry was one of the city’s early manufacturers of railroad freight cars. Although it evolved into one of the nation’s largest industrial trusts prior to the turn of the 20th century, its facilities were moved out of state in the course of consolidation.
In 1919, General Motors began construction on the Cadillac production facility. When completed in 1926, it was one of the most modern operations in the world − producing luxury automobiles for more than sixty years. In 1997, its operations and those of its sister Fisher Body Fleetwood plant were consolidated into the GM Hamtramck facility. General Motors and its partners then launched the development of the Clark Street Industrial Park, Vitec a minority owned supplier of plastic gas tanks was one of the early anchors and was later acquired by Kautex / Textron. The Ideal Group led an effort to develop, with two other Hispanic owned businesses, the Hispanic Manufacturing Center on a portion of the site. The Guide hopes to highlight these firms in future posts.
