Dodge Hamtramck Plant Assembling Building #1 Description and Photos
The Dodge Brothers did not begin to build cars until they erected the Assembly Building in 1914 at a cost of $500,000. Smith, Hinchman & Grylls designed this four-story rectangular building, which is 70 feet wide and 1074 feet long. It has a flat roof, steel sash, and an interior flat-slab framing system with round mushroom columns. This structure runs east and west, perpendicular to and connected to the existing Machine Shop (1910), as well as to the later Die Shop (1915) and Main Building Number Four (1926). It is linked to all of those buildings at the second, third, and fourth floors. At the time it was completed, the Assembly Building housed the Final Assembly Line on the second floor, with parts and subassemblies moving down from the upper floors to meet there. When the plant closed in 1980, the Final Assembly Line was exactly where it had been in 1914.
Photocopy of original drawing, 1913 (S, H and G) ASSEMBLING BUILDING #1, ELEVATIONS
Photocopy of original drawing, 1913 (S, H, and G) ASSEMBLING BUILDING #1, ELEVATIONS
Photocopy of original drawing, 1913 (S, H and G) ASSEMBLING BUILDING, 41, SOUTH ELEVATION
Next pictures (Inside the building in 1915)
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