This post originates in the
@ayilar architecture thread on garages, gas stations, and dealerships.
Photos of Vintage Auto Dealerships, Repair Shops, and Gas Stations
Some of us (me, obviously) expanded on a few occasions to the architecture of the auto industry. In my case it was Detroit, as that's where the industry thrived from 1900's through the 1970's.
sources:
Ford Highland Park Plant | Detroit Historical Society,
The Highland Park Powerplant Story by Paul Rentz – Model T Ford Fix,
Gas-Steam Engine, 1916, Used to Generate Electricity at Highland Park Plant - The Henry Ford
So why here in this thread now.
The Ford Motor Company's Highland Park Michigan (suburb of Detroit) was where he
mass produced the Model
T - arguably the car that "put the world on wheels" - starting in
1910. Ford built 15M Model T's in Highland Park until
1927.
Highland Park was a HUGE complex (130 acres), and it had a large powerplant right on Woodward Avenue. This powerplant produced all the electricity for the site
until 1926 (when electricity came
FROM River Rouge Mi 10 miles away which started production with the Model
A) Ford Complex powerplant (yes, Henry strung power lines, on his dime, 10 miles
TO Highland Park to power his US auto empire at the time).
circa: 1930's, the powerplant with five smokestacks, and one of the site administration buildings in the foreground. This is Woodward looking north.
So, fast forward to
1956. Henry Ford died in 1947, still very fond of Highland Park where it all started. In 1956 the Highland Park Plant complex became National Historic Landmark. Its also the year, Ford started to demolish Highland Park starting with the powerplant.
Again, the powerplant did NOT generate electricity to the site since
1926. From 1910 to 1926, the powerplant had some of the most magnificent pieces of heavy metal in the world at the time.
Again, this was all done in the
1910's. Extraordinary when you set/learn about what folks built.
These folks -- building dreadnaughts, the Titanic, and the first industrial-level electricity generating powerplants -- were extremely skilled, and metalworking design and manufacturing was very advanced.
Over 100 years ago.
Nine (three rows of three engines), gas-steam engines (of Ford's own design)
6,000 HP each,
1.5M lbs each,
each "flywheel" (connected gas engine to the steam engine) weighed 100 tons, and
each engine was 72 ft. long, 45 ft wide, and 22 ft. tall (11 ft. above the floor, 11 ft. below the floor).
circa: 1919, powerplant first floor, looking north, Woodward Ave. out the windows on the left. Three,
50-ton cranes overhead, tiled floors, enamel bricked pillars, etc. Description under the picture.
The upper floors of the powerplant had multiple banks of electrical distribution, steam pipes, conduits of every type, etc., , necessary to power EVERYTHING on the 130 acre complex. The "windows" were basically shutters to allow ambient air flow through the building to modulate temperatures inside it.
One of the nine engines is at Henry Ford Museum in Dearborn. Description and pic of the 100 ton flywheel below.
Last, in 1956 the powerplant was torn down (something Henry Ford had forbade while he was living it is said). Eight of the gas-steam engines were scrapped and the one left at the Henry Ford.
The following pictures are stills from a multipart, 12 minute video with footage from ~1920, and then the 1956 historical site ceremony (Edsel Ford Jr. wearing a "boot"), and then the 1956 demolition of the powerplant.
circa: 1920, on Woodward, looking into the first floor of the powerplant. One of the "flywheels" is visible through the window in the middle of photo.
1956, the stacks being pulled down (perspective is from inside the complex, a crane is pulling them down one-by-one). And then there were none.
) feller in Wisconsin collects tractors. He owns one of the first North American (Europe has a few) diesel tractor. The 1935 McCormick-Deering (IH) WD-40.
