Abandoned Detroit: Fisher Body Plant

Once a state-of-the-art factory, Fisher 21 is abandoned

by

Theresa Welsh

Across Piquette Steet from Henry Ford's original Model T factory building, where he hand-built his automobile, is the abandoned Fisher Body 21 plant. This is a large six-story factory building, located near the Chrysler Freeway overpass, that has been sitting empty for many years. The Piquette plant was designed by Albert Kahn, the master architect whose buildings are all over Detroit. It first used in 1919 in use by General Motors until 1984. It was one of many auto plants located in this area because of the railroad line that went through here. The Cadillac plant, Studebaker plant and several other auto related factories were nearby for the same reason, and may of the buildings are still here.

This building represented a break from previous factories. It has reinforced concrete floors and windows everywhere, letting in light and ventilation for workers, unlike the dark and dingy buildings used for industrial work up to then. The floors could withstand the weight of heavy presses and use of concrete reduced the risk of fire. Each floor of this building contained heavy equipment and parts had to be moved up and down by heavy-duty elevator.

Today, automobile factories are built spread out, rather than built up in multi-story buildings like this one, but rather require huge tracts of land. Today's factories require not just a huge building, but huge parking lots too. In the 1920s when this factory was humming with activity, workers lived in the city and could use public transportation to get to work.