Identify Another Building

[detroitbob66]

Help Teammates! I need to know what the giant white commercial building is at the end of Commonwealth Street at I-94, or what are or what WAS all these buildings. I know the one still in operation is Bay Logistics, but what about the abandoned buildings here? The railroad tracks run right behind the buildings. Thanks again team! Here is a map of the area I am referring to:

http://maps.google.com/maps?hl=en&bi...ed=0CBQQ8gEwAA

[Lowell]

This one?

Attachment 7649
From^ Google Street view Rosa Parks Bridge over I-94

[detroitbob66]

Exactly Lowell....I recently walked around the building to try to get into it, but its pretty secure. What what this building Lowell? If anyone knows, it would be you, the Owner of the team!

[EastsideAl]

A&P grocery warehouses. Built 1924 [[bigger building) and 1928.

[MikeM]

What Al said. 5470 Hecla. Great Atlantic & Pacific, warehouse & general office.

[detroitbob66]

Was A & P a Detroit original company? I do remember the A & P grocery stores throughout Michigan, but wonder why they had warehouses here in Detroit. Thanks guys!

[EastsideAl]

Was A & P a Detroit original company? I do remember the A & P grocery stores throughout Michigan, but wonder why they had warehouses here in Detroit. Thanks guys!

A&P began in NYC as a tea importer. In the early 20th century they pioneered the low-price self-service grocery store - what eventually became the supermarket. By the time these warehouses were built A&P was by far the country's largest grocery store chain, with about 15,000 stores across the U.S.

This meant that they moved tremendous amounts of food, most of it by rail in those days before interstate highways and refrigerated trucks. So they needed big cold storage warehouses, centrally-located with easy railroad freight access, in large cities throughout the country.

[jcole]

A&P began in NYC as a tea importer. In the early 20th century they pioneered the low-price self-service grocery store - what eventually became the supermarket. By the time these warehouses were built A&P was by far the country's largest grocery store chain, with about 15,000 stores across the U.S.

This meant that they moved tremendous amounts of food, most of it by rail in those days before interstate highways and refrigerated trucks. So they needed big cold storage warehouses, centrally-located with easy railroad freight access, in large cities throughout the country.

yes, Atlantic and Pacific Tea Co.

[Sandhouse]

Very good explanation by Eastside Al of Twentieth-century logistics. Detroit was the logical location for warehousing when it was the center of population, and for some time thereafter, because it was still at the center of mass of the regional population.

Of course, it's still at the center, but the warehouses have left for one-story facilities near suburban freeway junctions. I think that this is one area in which the City of Detroit ought to be able to still compete for business locations, if large-enough tracts of developable land could be assembled. Centrality ought still to be worth something as the market sprawls out, as a distribution center in one suburb may be very distant from other suburbs.

Of course, multi-story cold-storage warehouses are dinosaurs that will never come back.

[dtowncitylover]

My grandma worked for A&P before and for a short time after the War. She claims she is the person who made Reese's Peanut Butter Cups to begin selling in Michigan because she had ties with Pennsylvania and worked for a grocer.

[TiCub]

This was the A&P bakery for the Midwest area back in the early 60s. I worked there in the summer for a couple of years while I went to school. The plant had three shifts operating most of the time producing bread, rolls, buns, coffee cakes, popcorn, etc. As a part time summer job, it paid very well, but I had some very odd eight hour shifts.