Mystery for you from Shorpy

The images from the shorpy web site continue to amaze me, every day. Never miss it. Anyway, a posting today shows the Cadillac Motor Car Company in 1909. The only clue to the location is on the side of the railroad shed, with the last two letters of a street: "----rd Ave." The railroad tracks would make me think the southwest side south of Fort Street, but I can't think of any street in that area that ends in "rd".

Take a look and give me your best shot! http://www.shorpy.com/node/8979?size=_original

[[Edited for typo)

That sign is probably on the DUR shed for Woodward. The Cadillac factory was at Amsterdam & Cass. Part of that factory still stands, Wescott Paper.

For the record, that photo first appeared here in postings by Hornwrecker on August 15, 2005 and again on Feb. 4, 2006:
Old Car Factories - 10
Old Car Factories - 17.

Here is the index for all of the "Old Car Factories" HoF threads.

So looks like that is Cass when there was an at-grade crossing. When did they lower the streets & put the elevated rail in?

What I find most interesting is how little postal drop boxes have changed - an enduring design, like the shoe lace.

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Originally Posted by admin

What I find most interesting is how little postal drop boxes have changed - an enduring design, like the shoe lace.

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Thanks to the photo, I was talking about that last night! Even was trying to find when the design debuted! :D

Ah! I knew you guys would have the answer! Your knowledge never fails to amaze me. And, yes, that grade crossing is a chuckle. I went to Google street view for the area, and the underpass that was since built sure is falling apart....as are all of them on that trunk line.

Come on Ray... that wasn't part of your beat back then? Or hadn't the city stretched out to that far yet? :)

Naw, the city was bounded by the Detroit and Savoyard Rivers then.....:)

What a terrific photo!! Thanks for all the added info. I worked in the Westcott Paper Products building back in the summer of 1974! Never knew the building's history until the PW Auto Heritage Tour and the Old Car Factories thread a few years back. What a feeling to learn that I had worked within the walls of Cadillac automotive history!

I'm wondering if it's a signalman's shanty. The express wagons imply a station stop, but I'm wondering if the crossing gate was powered by hand.

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Originally Posted by douglasm

I'm wondering if it's a signalman's shanty. The express wagons imply a station stop, but I'm wondering if the crossing gate was powered by hand.

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I went back and looked at the 1921 Sanborn map of the area, and that building is labeled as "Union RR Station". There is what appears to be a crossing signalman's tower across Cass, just out of frame on the right, drawn as as a small square with a 2 in it, meaning two story. [[Somewhere in the area was also a DUR carbarn.)

The upper two tracks are Michigan Central, with the lower two being Lake Shore and Michigan Southern. Grand Trunk Western, out of frame to the right, had a similar small station on the other side of Woodward.

Also of interest, the spire on the upper right of the photo, behind the trees, is DFD station Engine Co 17/Ladder 7.

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Originally Posted by jtf1972

So looks like that is Cass when there was an at-grade crossing. When did they lower the streets & put the elevated rail in?

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I'm thinking around 1910. At the time Studebaker bought the Piquette Plant, they had to install a door at the north end of the building on the second floor to accommodate the new grade. When Ford was there, the door was on the first floor.

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Originally Posted by Ray1936

I went to Google street view for the area, and the underpass that was since built sure is falling apart....as are all of them on that trunk line.

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Ray,

I'm not sure of the timeline, but the underpasses at Second and Third are getting rehabbed.

The 1921 Sanborn map shows the Cass Ave. RR crossing at grade level.

Here's one of those idealized, factory postcards. The large building opposite on Cass was a Cadillac warehouse, as well as some of them on the other side of Amsterdam. I'm guessing that this card was post-WWI.

Attachment 7439

There's a narrow coalyard across from the "train station" between the LS&MS and GTW. The large building in the lower right was Briscoe Mfg, makers of auto parts. Immediately behind the Cadillac factory on 2nd was the Caille Perfection Motor Co, maker of boat engines and slot machines, and also a very short lived automobile in 1904. The DUR carbarn was at the SE corner of Cass and Amsterdam, vacated by 1921.

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Originally Posted by Todd_Scott

Ray,

I'm not sure of the timeline, but the underpasses at Second and Third are getting rehabbed.

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Good to hear, Todd...they really need it. I did a 'google' tour of those underpasses a month or so ago and I think the only thing holding some of them up is the graffiti. :o Check out the ones down around Buchanan or Myrtle [[uh.....MLK?)

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Originally Posted by Ray1936

Good to hear, Todd...they really need it. I did a 'google' tour of those underpasses a month or so ago and I think the only thing holding some of them up is the graffiti. :o Check out the ones down around Buchanan or Myrtle [[uh.....MLK?)

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That's "Urban Art," pal.

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Originally Posted by Ray1936

Ah! I knew you guys would have the answer! Your knowledge never fails to amaze me. And, yes, that grade crossing is a chuckle. I went to Google street view for the area, and the underpass that was since built sure is falling apart....as are all of them on that trunk line.

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Could you post a link of streetview? When I go to Amsterdam and Cass [[virtually) I see a Cadillac dealership [[Dalgleish).

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Originally Posted by Ray1936

Good to hear, Todd...they really need it. I did a 'google' tour of those underpasses a month or so ago and I think the only thing holding some of them up is the graffiti. :o Check out the ones down around Buchanan or Myrtle [[uh.....MLK?)

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The one at W. Grand Blvd. and Hubbard always gave me the creeps. Three bridges with about 6 tracks. They're all steel and seem lower than most.