Packard Factory Complex
Detroit, Michigan
Friday, July 21, 2006

The Packard Motor Car Company was once the leading producer of luxury cars in the U.S. It’s factory and administration complex on East Grand Boulevard in Detroit was designed by Albert Kahn. It shut down in 1956, as the marque was going down the tubes.

The buildings survive… sort of. Now abandoned and subject of a fight between someone who claims to be the land owner and the City of Detroit; the city started and stopped demolition, last I saw.

It was lots of fun to find. East Grand Boulevard snakes through western Detroit, starting at Woodward Avenue, disappearing around the GM Hamtramck assembly plant and the Edsel Ford Freeway. On the southeast side of the freeway, the plant sits in the middle of a deteriorating residential neighborhood.

I just did a windshield tour of the plant, which spans East Grand. I left my hardhat in San Diego and didn’t want to venture inside by myself..

Factory ruins are plentiful all over Detroit. Very sad.

UPDATE

This complex celebrated (?) its 100th anniversary in 2007. A newsgroup includes links to more recent photos, a discussion of the facility’s future and other musings. GO>