Unfortunately for Detroit when your population goes from nearly 2 million to 600,000, and most of the jobs leave the city you are left with a lot of vacant properties. One of the most famous is the 3.5 million square foot Packard Automobile Factory.
Completed in the early 1900s, it was state of the art for it’s time.
At one point there were 90 buildings in use across the campus. Today only one remains in use, the rest are decaying to various degrees.
Designed by Albert Kahn it was a model factory for 1911. This view is of the former administration office building.
The complex has been vacant so long a tree has grown over a fire hydrant.
At it’s peak 40,000 people worked here.
Today bridges lead to nowhere.
While it closed in the 1950s as a car factory, portions of it were used for a variety of other purposes until the 1990s.
There is a large amount of graffiti throughout.
Including places you wonder how they got up there.
Debris is strewn about everywhere, including this column from one of the buildings with the rebar wrapped around it.
The campus has a tunnel complex throughout – originally used to provide electrical and other utilities.
Today it is mostly filled with debris like tires. The light down the tunnel is from collapses on down the line.
This bridge ‘sort of’ connects two buildings.
Some random dumping, including a boat that was then covered in graffiti.
A bumper – but no car.
Our intrepid white hard hatted group wandered about with the Pure Detroit guide learning about the history of the Packard Company and the facility.
At last we made our way up the ramp to where the assembly line ended.
With a look down the line. In the history of the factory over 1.5 million cars and trucks were produced here.
Some of the more artistic graffiti.
One of the buildings minus every single window frame (the glass has been gone from the buildings for decades).
Some of the buildings were originally built with 2 floors, but later expanded. Look closely you will note that the columns are slightly different between the floors indicated a later construction for the upper floor.
There were a number of hard core photographers in the group.
This building still has some remaining window frames, at a great happenstance view.
An elevator building that is amazingly still somewhat standing.
Ironically the complex has become popular with large scale movie production – this ‘concrete’ is actually a piece of Styrofoam painted to look like concrete from the latest ‘Transformers’ movie.
The last bastion of glass…
A survivor of the apocalypse – or a slightly burnt teddy bear in a factory in Detroit, minus one arm but still a smile.
The front building area has been cleared of debris as they try and restore it to a functional state.
While the office area has been cleared out waiting for a lot of money to come along to rebuild.
The funeral for the Packard Automobile Company was held over 60 years ago, and the factory itself over 20 years ago – but Detroit still holds out hope someone will bring this amazing place back from the dead. (and it was total coincidence a vintage hearse drove by while we were standing there waiting on the tour).
RDZ Photography 