A former Buick employee named Ward Smith who has contributed to this blog before, sent this article along. This is a great book for anyone interested in the early history of Buick. Ward was retired out of factory #29. You can super enlarge just about any photo on this blog for viewing small details. The way this is done is a little different depending on which browser is used.
Monthly Archives: May 2012
Lawrence Gustin In Durant’s Office Fisher #1
Death Of Buick City.
Telephone Directory 1931.
I bid on this item but lost. It would have been interesting. I had many of these in my years at Buick but never kept one. When I worked at Bay City Powertrain the book I had there was the General Motors Directory and included my old numbers from my office at Buick. That surprised me. It is interesting that the ambulance numbers are different exchanges depending on the time.
Factory Tour.
This is the start of one of the many factory tours at Buick during it’s lifetime. This one appears to be about 1969. You will notice the person leading the group in the dark suit has a loud speaker. This was definitely needed in most areas of the factory because of the steady noise (CLICK HERE FOR THAT SOUND). In this tour (starting from the Buick main office) you can see factory #04 filling the background. You can also see the body receiving area off to the right. This corner of Industrial and Hamilton Avenue always was the prime place for taking photos. I was the clerk for the truck dock shown in the background during 1981 to 1982. I have two different folding postcard sets (from 1968 and 1969) that were given out to the people taking the plant tour. When I took the tour in the 50’s I was given a miniature pocket sewing kit. Even then I was thinking that was a stupid keepsake. Follow the courtyard link for more on my tour. The postcard photos I mention, are posted throughout this blog. You can just do a search with the keyword 1967 or 1968 at the upper left corner to see these photos. Follow the link THE TRIP I MADE for one of the older keepsakes given out. Links:
The Trip I Made
Court Yard Between Factory #07 and #10
Body Receiving Through The Years.
This shows a load of closed body’s coming from the Buick body plant located at Industrial and Hamilton Avenue (the old W.F. Stewart plant) about the year 1921-1922. Closed body’s were now partially built in factory #08 which was attached to factory #4 in 1920. This is Industrial Avenue looking north. The body’s are on their way to factory #10 which was assembling the closed body Buick’s at that time. |
This photo (from 1920) shows factory #01 in it’s original form. It has the west, south and east wings, plus the center section is only one floor. The demolition work done between 1932 to 1934 removed the east wing (shaded yellow) first, followed a year later by the south wing (shaded red). The west wing lasted all the way until 1963. The roof trusses from the center section were reused for the new east wing of the crankshaft factory #66. Closed body production was so low in the teens that they were (for a short time) just trucked from the Fisher brothers plant in Detroit. As mentioned earlier, final assembly was in factory #10 for the closed body Buick’s. Most production in the early years was the open body style which traveled through a tunnel (see inside factory #4 link) running under Hamilton Avenue to factory #01 and then onto #06 assembly by way of an overhead bridge. |
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Buick Factory #01.
Inside factory #4
This was the new closed body receiving conveyor installed in 1922 in a 1932 photo. It is attached to the west wing of factory #01. Factory #10 is (at this time) attached directly to the west wing of factory #01. Since closed body’s were becoming more popular, a factory dedicated to just building for Buick was found in Detroit. That factory was designated #75. Since hauling chassis’s from Flint was expensive, this was changed in 1925 when Buick started building all their own body’s at the plant in Flint. Scripps Booth. |
Factory #01 closed body receiving 1924. Factory #01 closed body receiving 1924.
This 1934 view of the east side of factory #01 shows the area indicated in the previous photo. This is where the east wing of #01 once stood and will shortly be the new body receiving area. The red arrow points to one of the future entry points for the body’s. This view would be blocked when the main office received it’s addition. |
A tandem body truck. This photo is from the Buick Research Gallery in Flint, Michigan. |
The red arrow shows the body receiving area in 1940.The yellow outline shows where the main office will have it’s addition added in 1955. |
Here we have some 1936 Buick body’s arriving from the Fisher body plant #1 on south Saginaw Street in Flint. The old Durant factory was taken over by Fisher body when William Durant went bankrupt after the 1929 stock market crash. All (Flint) Buick body’s would be built at that location until the creation of Buick City in 1985. One other thing visible in this photo is the area of wall on the main office that is bricked over (above trailer). This is where the small bridges were attached to the south wing of factory #01 for quick access of office personnel. Follow the second main office link to see this bridge. |
Buick’s Second Main Office.
The first office was also connected in this same manner. This photo is from the Buick Research Gallery in Flint, Michigan.
Walter Marr,Buick’s First Engineer
Buick City “The Beginning”
Factory #62 1936
William Crapo Durant
Here is an overhead view showing the entire body receiving area as viewed from the main office in 1946. This view is facing north and the operation is described below. That is factory #40 building #16 in the background. This factory replaced old #06 assembly. That is the first factory I ever worked in at Buick and always seemed to be like a magnet for me through the years. old factory #06 |
The red arrows show the two entry points for the body’s entering factory #01. The orange arrow shows the exit point for the body dolly’s (dunnage). The yellow outline shows the carriage that moved up and down as indicated by the blue arrow. “Rube Goldberg would have been proud”. |
This 1947 photo shows a body truck just getting ready to drive onto the ramp into it’s unloading position. In my time this was the location of the “Tank Farm”. There is a lot going on in this photo. That is factory #40, building #16 in the center background where I first entered a Buick factory. |
October 1941. Original link |
This (east facing) view from 1960 is almost the same as the 1934 photo (shown farther above) with the body trucks on Hamilton Avenue. The yellow arrow shows the same location as the 1934 photo. |
The red arrow shows the complete body receiving structure in 1977. The yellow outline shows the footprint of the old main office which was blocking this view until 1968. |
The opposite view as shown below. |
Links: