Help Locating a Detroit Business ca. 1920

[Krawlspace]

I was hoping some members with business directories from the 1920's might be able to pin down an address for me. I am looking for the location of a lumber company by the name of Myers Howell & Condit.
I have a photo of a large forge [[probably automobile) which I am trying to identify. The only signage in the photo is of the lumber yard across the road from the forge. I am hoping that by finding the location of the yard I can then identify the forge. I believe the spire of St. Albertus is in the background, so it may be within a mile or so of St. Aubin.

Thanks in advance for the help!

[buildingsofdetroit]

I can look when I go to Burton on Thursday if no one else helps you before then.

[MikeM]

I can't find any company of that name in any phone book/directory between 1915 and 1935.

[Retroit]

Can you post the photo?

[Mikeg]

After spending a little time using the proximity search function at the on-line 1928 Detroit City Directory, I agree with MikeM.

However, I did find a man named Clement F. Condit who was the General Manager of the Union Lumber Co.

Attachment 3186

The Union Lumber Company was formed in 1923 and was located at 7840 W. Vernor, on the northeast corner at Springwells.

Attachment 3187

[MikeM]

Across Dix and a block to the east was the Proctor-Keefe Body Co:

http://www.coachbuilt.com/bui/p/proc...ctor_keefe.htm

[Krawlspace]

Thanks for the replies, guys...

It's doubtful that it's Union as it's in a residential area on the corner of a main street and a side street. That's not to say Clement Condit wasn't still somehow connected.
I would swear that I can see the old Cadillac factory in the background.
You can also see the Ford HP Plant's 5 smokestacks with water towers on each side in the far background.

[MikeM]

That's the General Motors Central Forge/Chevrolet Gear & Axle, now the southern part of American Axle's spread. You're looking northwest across Euclid Aveue [[no longer a thru street) in the foreground. I think what you've identified as the Cadillac plant could be Ford's Highland Park factory, or maybe it was the Maxwell [[Chrysler) factory on Oakland with Ford in the background. The church is probably Blessed Sacrement Catherdral.

The south end of the forge, as it looks now:

Attachment 3205

Attachment 3206

[Krawlspace]

Fantastic work, Mike! Thanks a ton!
I drove down Woodward today and it dawned on me that it must be Blessed Sacrament. Appreciate the ID.
Look for the now accurately captioned photo to appear in my 2010 Detroit Historical Calendar!

[Meddle]

This should be a similar Google Earth view with Denton street in the foreground.

[Meddle]

My guess is that what you have identified as a lumberyard was about where I have the red X and what looks like a store in the lower right would have been at Alice & Lumpkin.

[EastsideAl]

I really doubt that it's Blessed Sacrament. First of all, if that shot is looking northwest, Blessed Sacrament would be out of the camera shot or much further to the left. And, secondly, the nave of Blessed Sacrament wasn't finished until the 1930s, and the towers didn't go up until the early '50s. After MikeM's post IDing the building, my first thought was that it might be the telephone building on Oakman, now next to the Lodge Fwy., but that may not be old enough to be in that shot. I'm having trouble though coming up with a building of that size that could be seen in that direction if the photo in indeed to the northwest.

[MikeM]

Krawlspace, you are welcome! I believe it was built on a government contract for WWI production. I've seen it variously referred to as the Central Forge Co - Division of GM, and as Chevrolet Gear & Axle or Detroit Gear & Axle [[not to be confused with Chryler's Detroit Gear & Axle on Lynch).

Meddle's first aerial shows the additions on the east side. I don't know when they were built, but they appear in aerial photo's from the mid-1930s. By then there is an addition stack north of the one in your photo. [[Sanborn maps claim they are 225' tall.) Here's a close up of the south side of that addition:

Attachment 3209

Virtual Motor City has a photo of a 1945 UAW strike there. You can see it once had a Chevrolet sign on top, and it's hard to see, but it above the door it says Detroit Forge:

Attachment 3211
Attachment 3210

The building north of the plant but south of Holbrook, by the water tower, was a Northway Motors engine plant, a division of GM. The complex north of Holbrook was built for Cadillac [[Plant No 7 - Aircraft Division) where they made Liberty aircraft engines during WWI. I've seen it later referred to as the Central Gear Co - Division of GM. All eventually merged together as the Detroit Gear & Axle, operated by Chevrolet.

Meddle, Euclid used to run east as far as St Aubin. The area you are identifying as the lumber yard is east of St Aubin. The one in the original photo is west of St Aubin.

[MikeM]

Al, in the original, I thought the spire looked too far distant. Here's a crude experiment I did: I downloaded an aerial from the DTE collection and drew a line from the plant to the cathedral. In the original photo it looked like the front-right [[SE) corner of the office building, the left [[W) edge of the left most forge building, and the spire nearly lined up. Looking at a line connecting the office bulding and the cathedral on the aerial, the angle looks just about right.

Attachment 3212
Attachment 3213
Attachment 3214

[eddiez]

can anyone help find a Sanborn map of St. Aubin between Forest and Warren, specifically between Warsaw and Hancock? thank you!

[MikeM]

1921 Sanborn, west side of St Aubin, from Forest to Hancock:

[sumas]

I am always fascinated at the wealth of knowledge on this forum. Sumas

[eddiez]

wow, that's great....in looking at this map, i guess i was a bit off in what i was looking for. do you have a Sanborn map for St. Aubin where the addresses #987-#993 show up? thank you so much!

[MikeM]

987-993 were the pre-1921 addresses. The block from Hancock north to Warren was numbered 987-1027 [[new addresses 4801-4871):

[eddiez]

thank you!
So, as an example, #987 shown here on the corner is an address from before 1921? i'm specifically looking for where #987 was in 1920...thanx!!!!

[MikeM]

Yes, 987 was on the corner. S = store, 2 = 2 floors:



My 1922 directory lists 4801 [[987 - old system) as Louis Figlen, hardware.