Photographs Related to the General Motors Site,
ca. 1900-1953
Entire Record
Catalog
Transcription
In 1900 the Mobile Company of America began producing Walker Steam cars in this 700-window factory designed by well-known architect Stanford White. The Maxwell-Briscoe Motor Company acquired the factory in 1904, and by 1912 they led the world in the production of low-priced automobiles. In 1914 the factory was sold to William Durant’s Chevrolet Motor Company. From 1918, when Chevrolet merged with General Motors, until its closing in 1996, this facility was the largest General Motors assembly plant east of the Mississippi.
The first photograph shows the Stanford White-designed factory when it was the Maxwell-Briscoe Motor Company. The second shows Maxwell-Briscoe employees at work in the Tool Room ca. 1912. After the attack on Pearl Harbor all domestic automobile production at the plant, by then owned by General Motors, ceased. The third photo shows an area of the plant being converted for use by GM’s Eastern Aircraft Division, which was formed in 1942. The fourth shows “lady riveters” working at the plant during the early 1940s. The fifth shows the tremendous growth of the site in an aerial view of the General Motors Assembly Plant in the 1950s, when US automakers were at their most prolific. The sixth photo, ca. 1953, shows a full lot at the plant at night. There are brand-new Chevrolets as far as the eye can see.