Introducing the Southwest Detroit Auto Heritage Guide

Auto Heritage Guide Features

Firms & Sites: Recommendations found at the outset of this section offer a path through the Guide that traces, in chronological order, the first half of Detroit’s auto century. American Car & Foundry, the nation’s largest producer of railcars in the latter part of the 19^th century, was located on the site of the former General Motors Cadillac Clark Street operations. In the months before the crash of 1929, the Employer Association of Detroit’s ‘Labor Barometer’ payroll report noted that 4,200 workers labored at four auto suppliers, and that 11,500 worked at Lincoln Motors, Graham Paige, GM’s Fisher Body Fleetwood and Ternstedt plants, while Ford Rouge plant employed close to 99,000 workers.

Other posts trace the Ford Motor Company’s evolution from the world’s first vertically integrated industrial operation in the 1930s through seven decades years later, when its Rouge Assembly plant was turned into an exemplar of ecofriendly, sustainable manufacturing. The Michigan Central Station profile reminds us that the Station in its heyday can be regarded as Detroit’s Ellis Island for the thousands from throughout the country and the world who sought work here during the auto boom years. Ford’s billion-dollar commitment to transform the Station, which had been abandoned for almost five decades, into the hub of its effort to develop autonomous vehicles is also described.

Those posts and the profile of the supply chain management firm The James Group International underscore the continuing commitment that manufacturers are making to the area. The Guide’s launch may be regarded as an open invitation to other auto businesses to collaborate on additional histories that belong in this section.

Community History: The Guide’s essays in this section provide additional context. They chronicle the area’s 19th century industrial roots, the early years of the auto boom, and the challenges facing the industry since the end of World War II. They also focus on neighborhood events that figured prominently in transforming Detroit from a bastion of anti-unionism into one of America’s premier union towns in the 1930s and beyond. The latest additions begin to complete the final leg of the Guide’s three-legged stool.

The Guide’s initial posts to the discussion of Latino/a auto history include a recent article from the National Trust for Historic Preservations magazine that introduces many of the key themes that will be explored further in the future. In addition to the Hank Aguirre profile, an EL CENTRAL article by Andrea Meza highlights the “Blessing of The Lowriders,” a twenty-seven-year tradition whose goal is the breaking of stereotypes.

In the last year, several posts began the process of highlighting the ties of African Americans and Native Americans to the area’s auto industry. The Guide hopes to add material that chronicles the auto history of the neighborhood’s Arab American, Irish, Italian, Maltese, and Polish / Eastern European communities as well. Recently, an initial version of a “Disinvestment and Revitalization” essay was posted that explores decades of economic dislocation that battered the neighborhood during the last half of the 20th century. An initiative involving a class of Wayne State University undergraduate students is assisting research efforts that can advance work on many of these topics. Citizen researchers from the Southwest Detroit community and the metro area interested in aiding this effort would be most welcome.

Labor Roots: While many of the posts in this section are linked to other sections of the Guide, this is where people interested in the neighborhood’s labor history can find discussions of the 1932 Ford Hunger March protest, the sit-down strikes and organizing campaigns that launched the United Automobile Workers’ union, and the career of Walter Reuther in the decades prior to World War II.

We “Auto” Know More: This section features a list of auto-related firms, labor unions, and cultural communities whose contributions to the history of Southwest Detroit have yet to be developed. Help Build the Guide introduces contributors to the Guide. 

Visit the Auto Heritage Guide at: www.motorcities.org/southwest-detroit-auto-heritage-guide

To learn more about ways to assist the Guide team, email: volunteerSWDAHG@gmail.com.