Detroit begins demolition of blighted
Packard car plant
Associated Press,
by
Corey Williams
Original Article
Posted By: NorthernDog,
9/29/2022 6:55:59 PM
DETROIT -- Demolition of the long-vacant Packard auto plant in Detroit started Thursday as crews began tearing apart an already crumbling exterior wall of the massive structure. A demolition claw ripped and tugged on decades-old bricks and concrete along the upper floors of the old eastside factory that for generations has been a symbol of urban blight in the Motor City. (Snip) The Packard Automotive Co. built the plant in 1903, but by 1954, the structure had become obsolete and Packard car production was being done elsewhere. The company would go out of business a few years later. Detroit took over
Hard to believe that Detroit was once right up there with New York City as one of the wealthiest and top urban areas of the country, a go-to place for the blue bloods to live in and be seen.
16 people like this.
Reply 2 - Posted by:
thefield 9/29/2022 7:07:54 PM (No. 1291451)
Detroit's major symbol of urban blight and corruption. Only three recessions late.
8 people like this.
Reply 3 - Posted by:
Daisymay 9/29/2022 7:21:54 PM (No. 1291461)
One of my First Boyfriends in High School used to take me out in his Dad's Packard Convertible! What a Hoot! I think it was Yellow! That was in 1955!
19 people like this.
Reply 4 - Posted by:
padiva 9/29/2022 7:23:42 PM (No. 1291463)
What's the hurry on tearing down the building?
Is the Peruvian man a friend of PDT?
Maybe he is an illegal and doesn't understand English.
Which company would be the best one to rebuild the blighted areas of Detroit......as long as crime was not a problem?..........(PDT)
8 people like this.
Reply 5 - Posted by:
Newtsche 9/29/2022 7:26:48 PM (No. 1291467)
Grandma's sister was rich and had a Packard in the 50's. Even as a little kid, I could tell I was in something special, a level of luxury I never experienced again.
12 people like this.
Reply 6 - Posted by:
JHHolliday 9/29/2022 7:35:17 PM (No. 1291473)
All the big cities that are Dem-run (read “black”) are imploding. I would recommend those who have the means to get out do so now. There are plenty of decent, honest blacks who don’t have the money to pull up stakes and leave. Perhaps Biden could take a few bucks from the billions he is sending to Ukraine and his windmill agenda to help these folks out. NYC, LA, SF will resemble Detroit within a few years. Even if you are a billionaire lib, when the walls fall in your gated communities, you will wished you had listened to us “deplorables”.
11 people like this.
Reply 7 - Posted by:
spacer 9/29/2022 7:37:04 PM (No. 1291477)
My dad had a 1938 Packard with 2 jump seats that folded down between the front and back seats. Great car.
8 people like this.
Reply 8 - Posted by:
Ashley Brenton 9/29/2022 7:52:55 PM (No. 1291494)
I wonder if this is the plant where the Packard built copy of the Rolls Royce Merlin engine was made during WW2?
9 people like this.
Reply 9 - Posted by:
Timber Queen 9/29/2022 7:59:10 PM (No. 1291497)
My mother was born in Detroit (1920) and was proud of her hometown, "Where Mr. Ford changed America." Her father was a machinist at Ford and had a job all through the Depression. Sometimes it wasn't a full week, but it was her understanding that men with families were never fully laid off. In our house a bad word could never be said against Mr. Ford. She started out in the typing pool at Ford the day after she graduated from High School. She would tell me stories of how exciting Detroit was during World War II; the city full of soldiers, sailors and airmen in transit, trains running day and night, the factories running day and night. By the end of the war she promoted to being the private secretary of a Division Chief. After the war she talked of the night clubs and restaurants, and fancy theaters downtown alongside multi-storied world-famous department stores. Their playground was an amusement park called Belle Island, and for international adventure Windsor, Canada was a stone's throw away. It all sounded like such a wonderful place to grow up. I always wanted to visit. Its just a fantasy place in my imagination now.
20 people like this.
Reply 10 - Posted by:
formerNYer 9/29/2022 8:20:51 PM (No. 1291513)
Detroit - What happens when the unions rule.
15 people like this.
Reply 11 - Posted by:
Mauigirl 9/29/2022 8:47:24 PM (No. 1291524)
I was born and raised in east Detroit.
I don't miss it.
7 people like this.
Reply 12 - Posted by:
GoodDeal 9/29/2022 10:53:15 PM (No. 1291545)
A perfect opportunity to Build Back Better. Of course the perfect replacement project is a homeless shelter.
2 people like this.
Reply 13 - Posted by:
DVC 9/30/2022 1:06:50 AM (No. 1291572)
Re #8, yes, this is the plant where Packard built about 55,000 Merlin V-12 aircraft engines used in P-51 Mustang fighter aircraft in WW2.
It is interesting to note that Rolls Royce, who designed and built the Merlins, used ''selective fitting" and hand filing to make parts work with unusually wide dimensional tolerances and parts were not necessarily interchangable, engines were essentially hand fitted.
Packard found this unworkable, and spent a year redrawing all the Rolls Royce Merlin drawings to tighten the tolerances so that all parts would be absolutely interchangeable, as on US autos. And Packard had superior crankshaft bearing technology and used it, improving Merlin crankshaft bearing life. RR adopted the modified bearings for their production, too.
9 people like this.
Reply 14 - Posted by:
smokincol 9/30/2022 1:20:26 AM (No. 1291579)
if you tear down the vestiges of the past, you'll have nothing to build a future upon - this does not make any sense whatsoever
3 people like this.
Reply 15 - Posted by:
Bur Oak 9/30/2022 11:20:33 AM (No. 1291936)
Shouldn't be much left to demolish after all these years.
2 people like this.
Below, you will find ...
Most Recent Articles posted by "NorthernDog"
and
Most Active Articles (last 48 hours)
Comments:
At one point it was a stop on the Ruins of Detroit tour of the city.