Old Chrysler McGraw Glass Plant

[msamslex]

The old Chrysler McGraw glass plant at Wyoming and McGraw is being torn down. For the last year or so the parking lot was used for new car storage [[Ford cars I guess) until they were loaded onto car haulers for shipping. Sorry I don't have any pictures, didn't have a camera with me.

[Hamtragedy]

DeSoto Plant?

[Richard]

http://www.michigan-commercial-real-...ouse-Space.htm

4th one down on the list ,not exactly an old building. I wonder what the reuse is or is it apart of the remediating picture.

[DetroitPlanner]

About 15 years ago the McGraw Glass plant went through a remarkable reconstruction where most of the old plant was knocked down while a new one was being built. I seem to recall that production never ceased during this activity.

[MikeM]

70 years ago today - planning the McGraw Superhighway:

[Richard]

New home to Customs and Border Patrol for freight inspections.

[Maple Leaf Rag]

That map doesn't seem right. There's no Warholak Tire on it.

[DetroitPlanner]

Maybe because it is not a map? Where is the drive in? It also shows a flyover bridge along Wyoming and a lot of ramps that never existed.

[Detroitnerd]

Interesting to hear about the reconstruction. I remember when I got back to town in 2002, I thought it looked nothing like the old glass plant I'd known. Sorta sorry to see a relatively new building fall like that. Now the intersection will be that much more boring when you turn off Addison.

Also, that vision of the freeway is remarkable. Of course, they're not going to show the drive-in on that rendering. It's more for publicity. I don't think it wound up taking the route it shows, or else McGraw would have been part of the ROW.

Another small note: In streetcar times, the turnaround for the car that ran down McGraw was just a little bit east of that intersection.

By the way, anybody know what this substation-looking thing is down the street? I often wondered.

http://maps.google.com/maps?hl=en&sa...7.62,,0,-11.88

[1KielsonDrive]

If my recollection is right, the plant that allegedly was torn down a few years ago, strongly resembled an Albert Kahn design - lot's of glass, etc. I don't believe Kahn did work for Chrysler. Regardless, I remember it being quite attractive, seeing it when I was a kid and a teen. I was next to the plant on tuesday night, wednesday morning, but didn't notice any activity. I'll attempt to get by there again soon and take some photos.

[Hornwrecker]

The factory was built by the Saxon Motor Co who went broke [[before even using the place?), sold it to GM which used it to make Buick-Liberty engines for WWI aircraft, and later for Scripps-Booth [[until 1922) and later the LaSalle marque of Cadillac. Chrysler bought the plant in around 1936 for DeSoto until 1958 when it became a glass plant.

[MikeM]

Interesting to hear about the reconstruction. I remember when I got back to town in 2002, I thought it looked nothing like the old glass plant I'd known. Sorta sorry to see a relatively new building fall like that. Now the intersection will be that much more boring when you turn off Addison.

Also, that vision of the freeway is remarkable. Of course, they're not going to show the drive-in on that rendering. It's more for publicity. I don't think it wound up taking the route it shows, or else McGraw would have been part of the ROW.

Another small note: In streetcar times, the turnaround for the car that ran down McGraw was just a little bit east of that intersection.

By the way, anybody know what this substation-looking thing is down the street? I often wondered.

The substation looking thing is DTE's McGraw substation. Last I knew it contained four 24kV transformers.

Hornwrecker sums it. When Chrsler DeSoto purchased the plant Kahn designed a press shop on the east side in 1936:






with an addition in 1941:





Here's a 1949 aerial view with the original LaSalle plant on the left and the Kahn press shop addition on the right:





Sometime in the 1990s the LaSalle portion was demoed and the Kahn section got a new facade and addition:

[MikeM]

1926 and 1933 maps labeling the plant as General Motors:






This is a 1935 map without the factory labeled, but the airport [[#7) caught my eye. It's listed as Haggerty Field. I see at the time that there was a large open field across Wyoming:

[Detroitnerd]

The large open field where the Ford-Wyoming theater is now used to be brick foundries in the old days.

Love the 1920s map. McGraw didn't go THROUGH yet. Wonder how many mid-block houses had to be taken down to run it through.

[Big Dog]

I retired from McGraw Glass. Lot's of blood, sweat and tear memories.

[MikeM]

More DeSoto:

[1KielsonDrive]

As usual - MikeM to the rescue. Thanks again for your wonderful, historical contributions. The photo you posted right after my last post shows how beautiful an industrial building can be. That's kind of the way I remember the building, albeit 1950's and 60's.

[Big Dog]

There's a McGraw Glass site on facebook. Lot's of info there.

[Rocko]

I had no idea that McGraw didn't go through until sometime in the 20s. Was it not created until this time, or just not the far western portion? Those old maps and aerial images are really great. I imagine Haggerty Field replaced the old aviation field in the Aviation Sub/Morrow Circle neighborhood.

I'm originally from Dearborn and we attended church on the east side. As a young kid in the early 90s, I remember driving to church every Sunday and seeing them building the addition/modernizing the Kahn portion in the back while the old LaSalle portion was still in use in the front, then the empty shell of the LaSalle Building standing a while longer before being demoed. I used to proclaim "there were so many broken windows I could throw a hammer through one side and have it come out the other." I was probably 7 or so.

Too bad the old Kahn portion was being demolished....I figured the end down by McGraw was Kahn based on the trademark roof/window clerestory design. I liked the LaSalle portion because it was right up along the sidewalk, and together with the telephone poles right along there it really presented one of the last vestiges of an early 20th century manufacturing complex....not a modern one that is set well back from any road.

Anyone know anything about the former Chrysler plant to the north and across Wyoming from McGraw Glass? It's easily visible from Wyoming north of the train tracks, just before you get to the massive Dearborn Steel warehouse. Until a few years ago, it had a very large water tank facing Wyoming with the Pentastar on it. The south portion of that building very much reminded me of the old LaSalle plant that used to be right along Wyoming at McGraw Glass. The old part is demoed but a newer part is still standing, though I'm not sure of the use.

[Rocko]

Oh yes, and that photo of the McGraw superhighway is fantastic. Obviously the route of the future I-94 didn't take quite that path, bending more sharply to the east after passing under Michigan Avenue, splitting the distance between Michigan and McGraw, and then continuing northeast. In the photo though, is that the DTE substation on the south side of the freeway just past the huge Wyoming flyover? It looks like a white 3-4 story building along where I imagine the old south side of McGraw would have been.

[WaCoTS]

i live right near there and have been watching the progress. these pics are a few days old.

[Whitehouse]

For a building that was no in use anymore it was heavily guarded. In this shot alone, three cameras.


I wonder if these are still up, since D-C devorced.

[Whitehouse]

i live right near there and have been watching the progress. these pics are a few days old.

And look at the difference!



.... I mean the gas prices...

[Big Dog]

Rocko, the plant that was across wyoming, was Chryslers Detroit Universal plant. They made universals and driveshafts there.

[jackie5275]

That was the first plant my dad worked at beginning his lifelong Chrysler career.