Looks like this might finally be The End Of An Era...

[Murph]

And so it goes.

Partial demolition begins on 'scary' Packard Plant (detroitnews.com)

 

[Murph]

Not many cars were as cool as a Packard.

I had a High School teacher who re-stored them.

[DanvillRob]

24 minutes ago, Murph said:

And so it goes.

Partial demolition begins on 'scary' Packard Plant (detroitnews.com)

 

Several years ago, I did some work in Detroit..... the downtown is still pretty nice...but the suburbs were scary!

[Murph]

15 minutes ago, DanvillRob said:

Several years ago, I did some work in Detroit..... the downtown is still pretty nice...but the suburbs were scary!

 

Check out Chicago sometime.

Or East Saint Louis.

[ksdaddy]

In 1988 I facilitated the sale of a 1956 Caribbean convertible, white over teal. The woman who bought it new waxed nostalgic about driving up and down the Pacific Coast Highway with her young doctor boyfriend.  She knew the car "all too well" and was quick to correct some poor grease monkey who missed a zerk fitting under that car (she knew the location of each). The upholstery  was reversible.... the seat panels could flip and you could switch between cloth and vinyl if I recall. The woman became a phys ed instructor and spent the later part of her career up here in northern Maine. I sold the car to a guy in Connecticut on her behalf, met the guy with the transport company (spray tan, wrap around sunglasses on top of his head, golf shirt, cargo shorts), jacked it up, aired it up, got it to roll so we could pull it onto his carrier... and by way of 'thank you', the CT guy mailed me a plastic punch bowl.

I can't make this up.

No good deed goes unpunished.

[DanvillRob]

34 minutes ago, Murph said:

 

Check out Chicago sometime.

Or East Saint Louis.

Ben, I've been to both places!   (I used to travel for work).

Chicago was full of 'squeegee-guys' who would wreck your car if you didn't pay them for cleaning your windshield....and East St. Louis.....you can't go there without an armed escort!

BUT!    We've go Oakland.....and Richmond....and Pittsburg......and Palo Alto.......and on.....and on.....

[Murph]

57 minutes ago, ksdaddy said:

In 1988 I facilitated the sale of a 1956 Caribbean convertible, white over teal. ................ The upholstery  was reversible.... the seat panels could flip and you could switch between cloth and vinyl 

Beautiful colors, man he had some sharp cars.

I dug 'em..

[Pinch]

1 hour ago, ksdaddy said:

In 1988 I facilitated the sale of a 1956 Caribbean convertible

THAT'S what you should have answered the 1966 tubes guy! 

[Whitefang]

2 hours ago, Murph said:

And so it goes.

Partial demolition begins on 'scary' Packard Plant (detroitnews.com)

 

My Grandfather on my Father's side worked there from 1929 until it closed in 1958.   It was quite a factory complex.  Took up a lot of space, and deteriorated so much over time it became an eyesore to some, but others held it in high regard as a vital part of Detroit automotive history.  Sadly, he never did own one of the cars he helped build.  But my Grandmother(on Mom's side) had a neighbor who had this nice looking boat.

                                                                

1949 Packard Super 8 deluxe.  As kids, me and my brother would often see him out in his backyard polishing it up.  He died in 1978 and that car still looked fresh out of the showroom! And still ran like it too.  My brother rushed over to see how much his daughter would want to sell it for, but was told, "That old thing?  We had the junkyard tow it away yesterday."    

1 hour ago, DanvillRob said:

Several years ago, I did some work in Detroit..... the downtown is still pretty nice...but the suburbs were scary!

Hey!  I live in the suburbs.  Nothing scary about MY town.  Just WHERE are you talking about? Which suburb are you referring to?

Whitefang

 

[Murph]

4 minutes ago, Whitefang said:

1949 Packard Super 8 deluxe.  As kids, me and my brother would often see him out in his backyard polishing it up.  He died in 1978 and that car still looked fresh out of the showroom! 

 

Very cool.

[jaxson50]

40 years ago I had a neighbor who owned a Clipper,  a wonderful car, you could adjust the torsion bar suspension from the drivers seat  the mother ran so quiet I had to lift the hood to visually see that it was running.

As Kdaddy pointed out, reversible seat covers plus this one had pivoting footrest for the bacck seat passengers. 

[DanvillRob]

1 hour ago, Whitefang said:

My Grandfather on my Father's side worked there from 1929 until it closed in 1958.   It was quite a factory complex.  Took up a lot of space, and deteriorated so much over time it became an eyesore to some, but others held it in high regard as a vital part of Detroit automotive history.  Sadly, he never did own one of the cars he helped build.  But my Grandmother(on Mom's side) had a neighbor who had this nice looking boat.

                                                                

1949 Packard Super 8 deluxe.  As kids, me and my brother would often see him out in his backyard polishing it up.  He died in 1978 and that car still looked fresh out of the showroom! And still ran like it too.  My brother rushed over to see how much his daughter would want to sell it for, but was told, "That old thing?  We had the junkyard tow it away yesterday."    

Hey!  I live in the suburbs.  Nothing scary about MY town.  Just WHERE are you talking about? Which suburb are you referring to?

Whitefang

 

I don't recall any names (other than Inkster.... a heck of a name, eh?).   But we (my partner and I) drove around and the city was in deplorable condition.

Had I known you lived close, we coulda stopped by....(my partner was also a picker!).

[Murph]

Studebaker had some sharp ones as well.

And trucks.

[RBSinTo]

7 hours ago, Whitefang said:

My Grandfather on my Father's side worked there from 1929 until it closed in 1958.   It was quite a factory complex.  Took up a lot of space, and deteriorated so much over time it became an eyesore to some, but others held it in high regard as a vital part of Detroit automotive history.  Sadly, he never did own one of the cars he helped build.  But my Grandmother(on Mom's side) had a neighbor who had this nice looking boat.

                                                                

1949 Packard Super 8 deluxe.  As kids, me and my brother would often see him out in his backyard polishing it up.  He died in 1978 and that car still looked fresh out of the showroom! And still ran like it too.  My brother rushed over to see how much his daughter would want to sell it for, but was told, "That old thing?  We had the junkyard tow it away yesterday."    

Hey!  I live in the suburbs.  Nothing scary about MY town.  Just WHERE are you talking about? Which suburb are you referring to?

Whitefang

 

Whitefang,

Reminds me of a short story by Roald Dahl called "Parson's pleasure" that I read in school about a million years ago.

RBSinTo

[Dave F]

My favorite Studebaker

 

Edited October 27, 2022 by Dave F

[DanvillRob]

3 hours ago, Murph said:

Studebaker had some sharp ones as well.

And trucks.

I had an uncle who would ONLY buy Studebakers…..until his son acquired a BMW dealership in Germany.

[sparquelito]

On Redstone Arsenal where I work, we are about to witness the end of a different era. 

The Marshall Manned Space Flight headquarters building (hub of the famed Gemini and Apollo programs, and the STS as well) is about to come down, and I plan to be there to watch it. 

https://www.al.com/news/huntsville/2022/10/nasa-ready-to-demolish-von-braun-hq-at-marshall-space-flight-center.html

[Murph]

1 hour ago, sparquelito said:

On Redstone Arsenal where I work, we are about to witness the end of a different era. 

I hate when they destroy perfectly good buildings.

And phrases like

"The vision is “a bustling, modern campus atmosphere, loosely bla bla bla......"

 

[fortyearspickn]

They do that here.  Tear down 10 year old buildings and put up ones on the same site that look identical, or "Ugly-Modern". 

I'm guessing the  $1.7M the city is paying out of taxpayers pockets for the demo  will wind up costing more.  And the guy in Peru who bought the property for $450K will never pay anything.  Best they can hope for it to put up a 'green' area - plant grass and trees.  No one is going to invest $5M in a sketchy area.  Unless the city gets a bond approved by low information voters  for a 'public use' area like a stadium, and dips deeper into the taxpayers pockets.   

Hey, WhiteFang -   do they still celebrate Halloween with  the "Devils Night"  arson sprees?  Doesn't look like there's any fire hazard in this plant - only opportunities for film makers to stage drug deals and shoot-outs !  😀  Still  it's obvious that dangerous eye-sore should have been torn down decades ago. 

[Whitefang]

22 hours ago, DanvillRob said:

I don't recall any names (other than Inkster.... a heck of a name, eh?).   But we (my partner and I) drove around and the city was in deplorable condition.

Had I known you lived close, we coulda stopped by....(my partner was also a picker!).

I don't live that close to Inkster,  but not that far either.  And Inkster is quite run down.  I live in an area known as "Downriver",  Which includes the cities River Rouge,  Ecorse, Wyandotte,  Trenton,  Riverview,  Melvindale,  Lincoln Park(my town),  Allen Park  and Southgate.    And..factoid:  NBC anchor Lester Holt hails from Inkster.

1 hour ago, fortyearspickn said:

They do that here.  Tear down 10 year old buildings and put up ones on the same site that look identical, or "Ugly-Modern". 

I'm guessing the  $1.7M the city is paying out of taxpayers pockets for the demo  will wind up costing more.  And the guy in Peru who bought the property for $450K will never pay anything.  Best they can hope for it to put up a 'green' area - plant grass and trees.  No one is going to invest $5M in a sketchy area.  Unless the city gets a bond approved by low information voters  for a 'public use' area like a stadium, and dips deeper into the taxpayers pockets.   

Hey, WhiteFang -   do they still celebrate Halloween with  the "Devils Night"  arson sprees?  Doesn't look like there's any fire hazard in this plant - only opportunities for film makers to stage drug deals and shoot-outs !  😀  Still  it's obvious that dangerous eye-sore should have been torn down decades ago. 

For PR reasons they started calling it "Angel's Night".   The arson numbers have fallen a lot,,  and there's still the volunteer patrols on the lookout for arsons that have been fairly effective.

As to tearing down old buildings, I think it's only a good idea if the building being razed is too expensive to bring up to code or some other kind of safety hazard.  within the last 25 years in my city they tore down two old school buildings, still in excellent condition and built replacement structures that lack the old school's architectural  aesthetics and visual charm.  And as far as Packard goes...

I agree it should have been demolished years ago too. And no film makers, but real drug dealers used the place a lot.  Never heard of any shoot-outs there, but gave plenty of homeless shelter.  But why it took 64 years after closing to knock it all down puzzles me too.  In comparison, I used to work for the Cadillac division of GM at their old main plant on Clark St. in Detroit.  It was constructed in 1921, ten years after that Packard plant was.  Yet,  five years after it officially closed in 1988 it was completely demolished. 

Whitefang

[fortyearspickn]

The GM  vs Packard timing ??    I think local politicians are just HOA Board Members on steroids. 

[Whitefang]

The difference being that GM was still around when the Cadillac plant was razed.  Since Packard was defunct  it was probably problems with getting Studebaker(with whom Packard merged with in 1954)  to demolish the hulking complex.  And I do mean hulking.

Whitefang

[Sgt. Pepper]

My friends father had a Packard. It was as big as a house. I think it was from the 50's.

[jaxson50]

In the 1980s I worked for Allen Test Products, marketing automotive diagnostic instruments and emissions testing equipment,  the headquarters were in Kalamazoo, Michigan right across the street from the old Checker Motors Company building, which was at the time a museum with a collection of the company's cars from the 20s till they closed.  I spent more than a few hours wondering around the showroom. 

 

[Murph]

11 hours ago, jaxson50 said:

In the 1980s I worked for Allen Test Products, marketing automotive diagnostic instruments and emissions testing equipment,  the headquarters were in Kalamazoo, Michigan right across the street from the old Checker Motors Company 

 

Very cool...

 

The last operating Checker Cab in New York City, an A11 built in 1978 with plate #1N11 and nicknamed "Janie", was retired in on July 26, 1999,^[45][46] as a New York City taxicab ordinance passed in 1996 requires that livery vehicles be replaced after six years of service.^[47] Janie, which racked up 994,972 mi (1,601,252 km) during her service, has since been sold at auction in 1999 (US$134,500), 2006 ($9,400), and 2015 ($7,700).^[48]