MotorCities Automotive Themed Tours Now Available!

MotorCities is partnering with five Detroit-area tour operators to offer public tours related to the automotive or labor heritage of Michigan.  

Tour experiences available vary from walking or riding in a bus to pedaling a bicycle – all while visiting key automotive historical sites and learning the story of how the region put the world on wheels.

We are proud to offer the following experiences: 

• City Institute - MotorCities Auto Heritage New Center and Dearborn Walking Tours - On the New Center walking tour, guests will experience the past, present and future of the Detroit area, going back in time with a visit to the Ford Piquette Avenue Plant and speak with some of the innovators who now call these neighborhoods home. This tour is offered on June 22 and August 24. The Dearborn walking tours take place on May 25 and July 27 and provide the opportunity to learn how the past and present of this city are interwoven, get to know the people leading some exciting new projects and see the innovations and adaptations of this important city. For more information, please visit http://thecityinstitute.com/public-tours

• City Tour Detroit - Becoming the Motor City: A Timeline of Detroit’s Auto History Paul Vachon, author of the Reedy Press book of the same name, guides these tours offered in 2024 on June 22, July 21, Aug 24, and Sept 29. The 3-hour walking tours will also utilize the Detroit People Mover and QLine. For more information, please visit https://citytourdetroit.com/

• Michigan Labor History Society – Detroit Labor History Tours This group offers a free two-hour bus tour in June that drives by the Ford Rouge plant, site of the 1932 Ford Hunger March and the 1937 “Battle of the Overpass” with stops of the Ford Piquette Plant Museum, the Motown Museum and the “Transcending” labor legacy landmark in Hart Plaza. A narrated one-mile walking tour of downtown Detroit is also available. For more information, please visit http://mlhs.wayne.edu/.

• Russell Brothers City Tours – Get on board for a fun-filled tour of automotive landmarks in the city of Detroit. Your guide, Emmy-winning TV and radio personality Greg Russell, takes guests to places they may know and some sites they might not. If guests have particular sites they’d like to see, just let Greg know. The tours are informative, insightful and most importantly, fun! For more information, visit https://russellbrotherscitytours.com/

• Wheelhouse Detroit - Auto Heritage Bicycle Tour - On this 15-mile tour, guests will discover how Detroit became the center of industry. The tour takes in the Globe Building, Dequindre Cut, Packard Plant, the GM Factory Zero (formerly Detroit-Hamtramck Assembly Plant), Milwaukee Junction, New Center (old GM Headquarters and Fisher Building), and TechTown, where we will learn how industry is evolving with advanced technology. Tour dates are June 23, July 28, August 25, September 22, and October 13. For more information, please visit https://www.wheelhousedetroit.com/auto-heritage.

Welcome to the Southwest Detroit Auto Heritage Guide, a resource chronicling the auto legacy built by the entrepreneurs, workers, businesses, and unions of Southwest Detroit. 

Visit Firms & Sites for the stories of key Southwest Detroit businesses and places. The recommended order of viewing sites outlined there offers a chronological arc of the neighborhood’s auto legacy.

Community History puts into context the trends and topics highlighted in the stories of individual firms and neighborhood sites.

Labor History posts explore the emergence of the United Auto Workers union in the late 1930s, its achievements, and the challenges it confronted in the decades that followed.

The We “Auto” Know More page explains our interest in profiling other firms. We anticipate paying tribute to the ties of various ethnic communities to the auto industry while documenting the histories of Teamsters Local 299 and the United Steel Workers Local 1299.

This section introduces you to those responsible for developing the Guide and outlines how you can help contribute to future Guide updates.

The Map harnesses Google Map features to permit viewers to locate the sites that are featured in the Guide. The thumbnails featured there allow easy access to our site profiles while identifying other important cultural resources that highlight Motor City auto history.

PHOTO CREDITS

Detroit Historical Society
Lincoln Motor Car Company / Ford Local 600 Women’s Auxiliary Workshop

Detroit Public Library, National Automotive History Collection
DeSoto Plant

Walter P. Reuther Library, Archives of Labor and Urban Affairs, Wayne State University
Michigan Central Station Passengers / GM Cadillac Sit Down Strike Pickets

Map Test