The houses that T built (and that built the T): Tracking down the assembly plant's of Ford's first distributed production effort

By RK Motors - Dec 13, 2018

 Photo courtesy Ford Motor Company.

Photo courtesy Ford Motor Company.

These days, the automobile company that operates out of just one assembly plant is rare. A century ago, however, it was commonplace, and like many other automobile manufacturing innovations, the practice of operating multiple plants simultaneously derived from the popularity of the Ford Model T.

Ford Motor Company, however, didn’t just open one or two assembly plants here or there to handle the increased demand for the T. Instead, in the years before Peter E. Martin helped develop the moving assembly line for Ford, the company opened as many as 30 plants across the continent to churn out Ts like there was no tomorrow.

While a few “branch assembly plants” operated here and there, building up cars from knockdown kits (located in Buffalo, Kansas City, Long Island City, and Minneapolis), the initiative to build a network of assembly plants began in December 1911, when Ford’s board of directors sent James Couzens to California in “the interest of establishing Branch Houses, Warehouses, or to make other arrangements for the handling of our business as may seem necessary.” Rather than follow their exact orders, Couzens came back with the suggestion to build smaller factories across the country that would assemble Model Ts from parts supplied by Ford’s foundries and stamping operations in Highland Park, thus saving Ford from the expense of shipping completed Model Ts all over the country. Couzens even went ahead and bought four properties (in Seattle; Portland, Oregon; San Francisco; and Los Angeles) figuring the board would agree to his suggestion.

While Albert Kahn designed the aforementioned Highland Park and, later, the River Rouge plant for Ford, the company turned to Seattle-based architect John Graham to design its Model T assembly plants, all in more or less the same multi-story, factory-slash-showroom pattern. Parts get delivered to the upper floors, usually via rail and a crane system, and down to the ground floor rolls a completed Ford Model T, either for sale in the assembly plant’s showroom or for distribution to regional dealerships.

Construction of the assembly plants began in 1912 and lasted only until 1915 or so, when the assembly line made the multi-story format impractical. But in that period, annual Model T production skyrocketed: Year-over-year production increased by about 80 percent during the Model T’s first few years, then jumped to 125 percent in 1912 and 140 percent in 1913. By comparison, the rate of production increases for Ford slowed to 46 percent in 1914 and seven percent in 1915 (the first two years of Model T assembly line production), indicating that widescale distribution perhaps had more of an impact on Ford’s ability to meet demand and thus on the Model T’s popularity than the moving assembly line.

The company even noted as much in a 1915 booklet that, in part, discussed the Model T assembly plants:

This great output would be impossible, were it not for the Ford Assembling Plants and Branch Houses, twenty-eight in number, located in the principal cities of the United States. To these assembling plants are shipped parts for Ford cars in carload lots, and the cars are assembled at the different plants and supplied direct to dealers in the surrounding territory. While the factory at Detroit is able to average 1,200 cars per day of eight hours, the assistance of the assembling plants makes possible the attainment of a daily average of approximately 2,000 cars. All this intricate organization and investment of funds is designed to accomplish two objects. First, the system makes it possible to ship parts from the main factory to definite points for assembly, obtaining a more rapid and more economic distribution. Second, the location of the assembling plants aids in giving prompt, reliable and economical service to Ford owners, besides very greatly reducing the freight costs for delivery of cars, etc. The strategic location of the assembling plants makes for a handy distribution of parts and supplies, and there are no vexatious delays for the owner of a Ford car while a part is forwarded from the home factory.

Yet, even though these Model T assembly plants were so instrumental to Ford’s success (and, by providing war materiel, to the country’s success during both World Wars), they’ve all been cast aside by the carmaker in the century-plus since their construction, which means there’s been no real effort to catalog them until now. We’ve made an effort to not only list each of the Model T assembly plants built under Graham’s oversight, but also to determine their exact locations, how long Ford used them, and what’s happened to them since. So, in alphabetical order of the cities in which they were built:

Atlanta, Georgia – 699 Ponce de Leon Avenue (formerly 465 Ponce de Leon Avenue); built 1914 to 1915, assembly started March 1915, assembly relocated to Hapeville and building sold June 1942; added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1984 and redeveloped into apartments and retail shops.

Buffalo, New York – 2495 Main Street; built 1915, assembly started December 1915, assembly relocated to Fuhrman Boulevard plant and building sold 1931; redeveloped into the Tri-Main Center.

Cambridge, Massachusetts – 640 Memorial Drive; built 1913, assembly started April 1914, assembly relocated to Somerville December 1926; renovated, currently home to Boston Biomedical.

Charlotte, North Carolina – 222 North Tryon Street, later 210 East Sixth Street; built 1914 and 1916, assembly relocated to Statesville Avenue plant in 1924; both locations demolished.

Chicago, Illinois – 3915 Wabash Avenue; built 1914, assembly relocated to Torrance Avenue plant 1924, further history and current use unknown.

Cincinnati, Ohio – 660 Lincoln Avenue; assembly started July 1915, assembly ended 1938; added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1989, renovated 2002, currently owned by Cincinnati Children’s Hospital.

Cleveland, Ohio – 11610 Euclid Avenue; built 1915, assembly ended March 1932, building given to federal government circa 1941; added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1976, renovated, currently home to Cleveland Institute of Art.

Columbus, Ohio – Cleveland Avenue and I-670; built 1913 to 1914, assembly ended March 1932, closed 1939; currently in use as a bakery for Kroger.

Dallas, Texas – 2700 Canton Street (formerly 2800 Williams Street); built 1913 to 1914, assembly started July 1914, assembly relocated to East Grand Avenue plant 1925, building sold in 1942; redeveloped 1997 into loft-style apartments.

Denver, Colorado – 920 S. Broadway; built 1914, assembly ended 1933, sold sometime prior to 1945; redeveloped sometime prior to 2009 for use as a data center.

Photo courtesy The Henry Ford.
 
Photo courtesy The Henry Ford.
 
Des Moines, Iowa – 1800 Grand Avenueplanned 1916, assembly started April 1920, assembly ended December 1932, sold 1943; renovated 1980s into Des Moines School District’s technical high school and central campus. (Even though it was built after Graham’s work with Ford seemed to end, this appears more like Graham’s plants than Kahn’s.)

 

Detroit, Michigan – (Contemporary sources list an assembly plant at 1550 Woodward Avenue, though no further information has been found.)

Fargo, North Dakota – 505 North Broadway Drive; built 1915, assembly ended 1917, sold 1956; renovated into multi-use commercial 2006

Houston, Texas – 3900 Harrisburg Road; built 1913 to 1914, assembly started August 1914, assembly ended November 1932, sold circa 1942; most recently occupied by Atlantic Coffee Solutions.

Indianapolis, Indiana – East Washington and North Oriental streets; built 1914, assembly ended December 1932, sold circa 1942; currently under mixed-use redevelopment.

Kansas City, Missouri – 1025 Winchester Avenue; built 1909-1911, assembly began 1912, closed 1956; remains industrial use. (First branch assembly plant outside of Detroit; unsure whether Graham designed. Location of first UAW strike against Ford, also where the 20 millionth Ford vehicle as assembled.)

Long Island City, New York – Honeywell and Northern Boulevard (formerly 564 Jackson Avenue); built prior to 1914, assembly relocated to Kearney (New Jersey) plant 1917; currently The Center Building.

Los Angeles, California – 2060 East 7th; built 1913, assembly began February 1914, expanded 1923, assembly relocated to Long Beach plant May 1930; currently under mixed-use development.

Louisville, Kentucky – 2400 South Third Street; assembly started January 1916, assembly relocated to Southwestern Parkway plant February 1925; renovated in 2008 into loft-style apartments.

Memphis, Tennessee – 495 Union Avenue; built 1913, assembly relocated to Riverside Drive plant November 1924, building sold 1932; building demolished circa 1975.

Milwaukee, Wisconsin – 2185 North Prospect Avenue; assembly started April 1916, assembly ended November 1932; currently mixed-use development housing the Peck School of Arts.

Minneapolis, Minnesota – 420 North 5th Street; built 1913 to 1914, assembly started December 1914, assembly relocated to new St. Paul plant May 1925, building sold circa 1945; currently home to the Ford Center. Reportedly the tallest building ever constructed for the purpose of building automobiles.

Oklahoma City, Oklahoma – 900 West Main Street; assembly started May 1916, assembly ended November 1932, sold 1968; redeveloped into the 21st Century Museum Hotel.

Omaha, Nebraska – Cuming and 16th streets; assembly started August 1916, assembly ended November 1932, sold 1955; added to National Register of Historic Places in 2004, renovated into luxury apartments.

Philadelphia, Pennsylvania – 2700 North Broad Street; built 1914, assembly started November 1914, assembly relocated to new Chester plant and building sold June 1927; currently vacant and for sale.

Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania – Baum Boulevard and Morewood Avenue; built 1915, assembly began March 1915, assembly ended November 1932, sold 1953; added to National Register of Historic Places in 2018, currently under redevelopment into a medical center.

Image courtesy University of Oregon Digital Libraries.

Image courtesy University of Oregon Digital Libraries.

Portland, Oregon – 2505 SE 11th Avenue; built 1914, assembly started February 1914, assembly ended 1932; redeveloped into mixed-use commercial.

San Francisco, California – 2905 21st Street; built 1914, assembly relocated to Richmond June 1931; appears to have been demolished.

Seattle, Washington – Valley Street and Fairview Avenue; built 1912 or 1913, assembly started March 1914, assembly relocated to Marginal Way plant January 1932; redeveloped circa 1998 into storage.

St. Louis, Missouri – 4100 Forest Park Avenue; built 1914, assembly started September 1914, expanded 1916, assembly ended and building transferred to federal government 1942; added to National Register of Historic Places in 2001, redeveloped circa 2006 into mixed-use.

St. Paul, Minnesota – 117 University Avenue West; built 1913 to 1914, assembly ended and building sold by 1920, assembly transferred to Mississippi River plant 1925; state of Minnesota purchased in 1952 and has since renovated as the Ford Office Building.

Of note, while Albert Kahn seems to have erroneously been credited with the design of some of the above (including Buffalo, Omaha, and St. Louis), he did indeed design some Model T-era factories for Ford (such as Chicago’s Torrance Avenue, the Jacksonville, Florida, and New Orleans, Louisiana factories), though those came later, in the early 1920s. If you have any additions or corrections to the list, let us know and we’ll edit where appropriate.

SOURCE: HEMMINGS