(WWJ) The old Ford Model T plant in Highland Park has stood at Woodward and Manchester as the world battled two World Wars and two major pandemics. It witnessed the inauguration of nearly 20 presidents.
Still, time has ravaged the second plant ever to produce the iconic Model T.
Ford Community Outreach director, Brad Simmons, said restoring the 110-year-old building is not a high priority for the company.
“There are so many opportunities like that to preserve in Detroit, and it’s a matter of priorities,” Simmons said.
The Ford Highland Park Plant opened on New Year’s Day, 1910.
It was “the birthplace of the moving assembly line” in 1913; and the first Ford plant to pay a five dollar a day wage for an eight-hour workday, according to the Detroit Historical Society.
The Detroit Historical Society said a glass wall and a walls of windows, long since broken, earned the building the nickname “Crystal Palace.” The 855-foot long plant was home to factories, offices, and a foundry.
The Ford Motor Company told WWJ a group of volunteers are hard at work to try to restore the building to its former glory. The Detroit Free Press reported a group of Ford retirees dedicated themselves to fixing up the another historic plant, Piquette Avenue Plant in Detroit, the first to produce the Model T in 1904.
The Ford Highland Park Plant played a critical part in the war effort; and manufactured tanks and aircraft engines during World War II. The building was named a National Historic Landmark in 1978.
Simmons told WWJ the Ford Motor Company will pitch in to preserve the plant in some way, but did not give any further details.