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Report - - Fisher Body, Plant 23 Detroit Michigan, Oct 2014 | European and International Sites | 28DaysLater.co.uk

Report - Fisher Body, Plant 23 Detroit Michigan, Oct 2014

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dweeb

28DL Regular User
Regular User
In 1916, the company became the Fisher Body Corporation. Its capacity was 370,000 bodies per year and its customers included Abbot, Buick, Cadillac, Chalmers, Chandler, Chevrolet, Churchfield, Elmore, EMF, Ford, Herreshoff, Hudson, Krit, Oldsmobile, Packard, Regal, and Studebaker.

The company constructed their signature factory, the Albert Kahn-designed Fisher Body 23, on Piquette Street, in Detroit, in 1919. The building is now part of the Piquette Avenue Industrial Historic District. At the time, the company had more than 40 buildings encompassing 3,700,000 square feet (344,000 m²) of floor space.

In a 1919 deal put together by president William C. Durant, General Motors bought 60% of the company. The Fisher company purchased Fleetwood Metal Body in 1925, and in 1926 was integrated entirely as an in-house coachbuilding division of General Motors. Fisher Body as a unique entity was dissolved by being merged with other GM operations in 1984.

This is one of Detroit's UE hotspots, and understandably so. It's huge, it's very interesting and it's wide open! This was my first port of call in Motor City and it didn't disappoint! All the schools and churches could wait as far as I was concerned, my primary objective in Detroit was to see as much of the auto industry as I could.

The building is huge, on a par with Millennium mills or the Stanley Dock Tobacco warehouse. The first floors were pretty empty but it got better as I went up. Cat had told me there had been a fire here just a day before my arrival to Detroit, and the place was still smouldering when I was in there, but there had been no attempt to seal it up.

The top two floors were fabulous, still kitted out with production line rails and many bits and bobs from the days of auto manufacture. The roof offered stunning views over the city, and despite being very visible for miles around I risked a water tower climb for the icing on the cake.

Again I was a little on edge in here about bumping into someone but it seemed I had the place to myself. Quite unbelievable by our standards just how large the place was, apparently there are plans to save the building but quite what you would do with it and how much it would cost just to re-glaze the windows alone remains to be seen.

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The building just below the water tower was the birthplace of the "Model T"
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Fisher Body Plant 21 is just across the street, and looks quite derelict, though is used for warehousing
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Please excuse the hoody, I was trying to look like I had as little to steal from as possible...
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slayaaaa

28DL Full Member
28DL Full Member
Nice one mate, interesting to see the difference in decay over the pond. Cheers for posting!
 

WildBoyz

Is this the future?
28DL Full Member
Nice report. Interesting to see some stuff from Detroit. Looks like there's an endless amount of exploring to be done over there.
 

Oxygen Thief

Admin
Staff member
Admin
Quality mate. Like the hoody! Suits you !

The top floors are great, you can almost imagine the old body-shells trundling around. Trundle, that's a great word not used often enough.

How were the floors connected production-wise?
 

dweeb

28DL Regular User
Regular User
How were the floors connected production-wise?

BIG lifts! there were two or three of them along the back wall. It must have slowed things down, I guess the reason assembly plants eventually went to one level.
 

host

28DL Full Member
28DL Full Member
Excellent work mate, i expect to see a lot more heading our way. Was this just a Detroit visit or did you see more of the states?
 

TheVicar

Loyal to the Drain
Regular User
Great stuff mate!

Detroit really is in such a sorry state and sadly nobody gives a crap. There must be an incredible number of sites there waiting to be explored.
Nowt wrong with the hoody - looks brand new!
On the occasions that I have had to traipse the rough parts of UK and US neighbourhoods I always wear scruffy old clothes and nobody pays you any attention. :)
 
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