Today’s photo was sent along from a regular reader.
An interesting early aerial photo of the Windsor Assembly Plant. I’m unsure of the date on this one, but it’s probably from the mid to late 1930’s. The view is looking south from Walker Tecumseh Road. The photograph dates to before 1948 for sure, as there is no sign of the old Chrysler Office Building along Chrylser Centre Drive.
The photo of the plant, also matches the layout of the buildings as shown in the 1937 Fire Insurance Maps, above (plant 3) and below (plant 2).
Thanks for sending the photo in!
Thanks for the pictures, its cool to see how it looked in its early years, and also how the railroad went into the Building. It Gives me an Idea for a model Railway project in the future. Also as stated in your comments south of Walker Road, shouldn’t it be South of Tecumseh Rd East. I would like to see more of this building and how the Railroad Match it and others in this area north of Chrysler.
Yes, Ian, it is south from Tecumseh…. My fingers got ahead of my brain! The Power house at the end of Ypres is visible on the right.
Looks like the map of Plant 2 shows a bit of Grand Marais Rd., however there doesn’t appear to be a road south of Plant 2 in the photo. Maybe this can help date the photo? Unless the road is actually there but out of the shot.
Just doing a quick search on Windsor’s (Chrysler) Motor Plant sent me to allpar’s site. Lots of cool pics (most of which) I think Andrew has already published.
http://www.allpar.com/corporate/factories/windsor.html
At the bottom of the page is a link to pics of plant #3’s line building cordobas in 1975. Nice seeing guys spray painting away mask free. I’m sure auto paint from 1975 was a lot healthier than today’s!
http://www.allpar.com/corporate/factories/windsor-1975.html
On a related note, why is Plant #2 (the motor plant) not #3 since it was built after Plant #3. As well as what and where were Plant #4, #5? One I’m sure was the foundry, was the powerhouse numbered? I know Plant #6 is that nice parking lot off Pilette.
hez -The black line separating the map of plant 2 & Grand Marais Rd., indicates the maps aren’t related. The plant 2 map was actually an inset map on the page…
WRG – Plant #1 was on Tecumseh & McDougall. #2 the Engine Plant, #3 WAP, #6 Pilette Road.
Could #4 & #5 be out of town? Etobicoke Casting maybe (I have no idea how old that plant is)?
I have a booklet from the 1933-34 that shows three buildings. Plant #1 Windsor, Plant #3 Walkerville and the Regina, SK Parts Depot. Sadly there’s no listing to where the plants are, but it says: “In 1927 Chrysler enterprises occupied seven acres of Canadian soil. Today the occupy nearly eighty acres.”
I looked quickly at Chrysler Canada’s history (again at the allpar) site, and in ’64 Chrysler acquired L. A. Young Spring & Wire Limited and the Walker Metal Products foundry both in Windsor. Last month there was a feature on the foundry. Timing would number these 4 an 5 since the big van plant didn’t come about until 1974.
I’ve asked a few retirees, and some union big wigs at the Local 444, but haven’t got any real answers, the powerhouse, the waste water treatment plant, the foundry, and every expansion at plant #3 have all been included and numbered differently by whoever is asked.
Thought some reader here might shed some light, and help me settle a long standing argument. That being said, I have never heard of, or even heard reference to L. A. Young Spring & Wire.
Wow, great assembly photos at the Allpar site. Does anyone have any contact information for the photographer, Larry Monkhouse? I was wondering if he had any photos of the 1981-83 Imperials being made or of back in August 1980, when Frank Sinatra and Gregory Peck came here to Windsor to introduce the new Imperial with Lee Iacocca?
very interesting photo. i remember working in that part of the plant, and it looked like it was that old inside. it was a shock in a way after i moved there from plant 6. plant 6 was so clean, but i got stuck in the old part of plant 3 and it was so filthy inside. i hear it went through a good cleaning recently though and upgrades to the work stations. i don’t work there anymore.
Interesting fact. On the upper left corner of the WAP photo, you can see the power plant, under it is the pole yard where BELL kept there telephone poles..We still call it the pole yard and the poles have been gone for some 30 years.
P.S. the tress in the forground are still there…Slippery elm (no lie).
As per the above comments… The photo is indeed the very late 30’s or early 40’s- I’ve seen it before but can’t remember. The powerhouse has undergone at least two expansions. The original powerhouse (I have a shoddy photo of the plant probably from when it was newly built and there is only one stack on the powerhouse (today is steam powered but back then it was coal). By ’37, there was an addition adding more building and one more big stack. Today there are 4 of them (you can see from Walker rd.) The waste treatment plant was built in 1968 just south of Grand Marais. The original plant #3 has been added on to many, many times. If you count the roof sashes on the plant in the photo, you can see there are 9 but originally there were only 7. Also, if you look closely at the roof you can see an expansion line at the front of the plant and at the back- both of those weren’t part of the original building either. It has been since expanded both west and east (and even further south before you reach plant #2). Another interesting note regarding the powerhouse was that until about last year when they added on a small building on the east side of it, there was about a 10 foot stretch of the old railroad lines still visible in the cement. You can’t see it in the photo because of the steam in the air but there was a single track that branched out from the main line west of the plant and went alongside the powerhouse and stopped. I believe it was for mainly coal delivery because on the inside west wall of the powerhouse today, the massive coal hoppers are still there although empty. When I first started working there in the mid 90’s, the train came into the plant and the box cars were actually unloaded right inside!
One last point- along with plant #1 on McDougall, there were also 2 spring plants across the street. I think one of them is now a bumper factory and the other was north of it somewhere. I think there is a photo of plant #1 on Wayne State U’s “Virtual motor city” collection from when the plant was fairly new.
Andrew, I asked my father in law who is a Chrysler old-timer/retiree and he echoed what you said about plant 4 and 5 being Walker Metal featured earlier, and the Spring Plant (which he recalls being somewhere around Shepherd). Plant 2 was torn down and rebuilt as part of plant 3. We didn’t get into it but I hope that helps a bit. Do your old fire insurance maps show anything around Shepherd that could be the old “Spring” plant and if so could it possibly be still standing? One of the old ETR industrial spurs would have serviced it. Maybe Railroad Rob might know a thing about it?
The spring plant was at Shepherd & McDougall. I think it’s Windsor Mold(?) today.
While the comments on when this picture have beeen interesting, perhaps a search as to when Mayfair School on 2500 block Chandler was built might answer your question. I can see Mayfair sitting in a block by itself. I lived on 2400 block Alexis in 49-52, and I can tell you all those streets were built up at that time so it has to have been pre-war. As t being able to see Grand Marais in this photo, it is off the top and out of view.
hello, if someone can help me out, i found a map of the chrsyler assembly line and it mustbe from the 60’s? maybe 70’s? really big. like over 10 feet. just wondering if anything can tell me anything about the value or it. i think someone stole it from the factory, and when i bought my house i found it in the garage
shirley i lived on the 2500 block of Meighen in the 60’s and had many friends that went to Mayfair school i think the date it was built was on the front of the building
Shirley another house that appears in the photo is that big one on cadillac and ypres that had a parking lot for a yard a buddy of mine lived immediately to the north of that house