L.A. Young Spring & Wire Corporation – Plant 3

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• that's pretty cool, thanks Andrew!
  i bet that was a sharp looking building when it was new, with a big ol flag flying above the door. i noticed if you go a bit further north on st luke there is a smoke stack on the roof of the old CML that's looking as if the roof has collapsed underneath it and it's pulling another down with it.

  thanks again!

• My uncle started as an apprentice at Young Spring & Wire (this would be in the 1940's) as my Dad had pointed out the old site east of Walker Road years ago to me. So many plants and buildings in this town are gone or long forgotten. There's a ton of stories and history waiting to be rediscovered. Then again, maybe not.

• While I worked, we referred to this plant as plant 7 . I was sent to all plants in windsor at various times and only once had to go to this Plant to pick up some weld tips we were short of in Plant 3. I've got an interesting question to some of you Chrysler buffs ??? Where are Plants 4 & 5 ??? Everybody knows the others ??? I know one of the ones in question ....

• http://www.allpar.com/corporate/factories/windsor.html

  This website only talks about plants 1,2,3 and briefly mentions the now defunct plant 6. Maybe a little more surfin around the site might reveal some more info.

• I think Chrysler bought the company in the sixties.

• The company in there now is called Klinic Manufacturing

• MWannick: Plants 4 and 5 were not here in Windsor. I have an old photo that says 'plant 5' on it but to my understanding, it is elsewhere (I think up in the GTA area if I remember correctly). Plant 1 was on Tec and McDougall; Plant 2 was in the location of the current bodyshop (demolished in '94); a foundry on Kildare near the GM plant (not sure if this might have been referred to as plant 4); plant 6 being the former Pillette rd. plant. There was also Spring #1 and Spring #2 on McDougall back before the 80's.

• Over the years there was a lot of plating done in a couple of these facilities. The sewer trunk on St. Luke was known to the authorities as "HOT" meaning that there were a lot of chemicals dumped into it. So much so that the steel rungs of the ladders leading down from the manholes were eaten away. Service guys had to be very careful going down. At one time a portion of St. Luke simply caved in swallowing a city bus with it. A little research project in the making. Also... There were a lot of other such industrial beauties along Walker and St. Luke until the mid 1980s. Most were a part of Windsor's automotive legacy. A rash of deliberate fires took them down one at a time over the coarse of a few years. It was rumoured that the arsonist was a juvenile and his identity was protected.

• Foundry was referred to as Walker Metal in the time I was at Chrysler it may have been numbered but you are right (to the best of my knowledge) Plant 4 or 5 was out of town & I pretty sure in Chatham. It supplied some type of parts or was a transportation wing of some sort. This being told to me by someone a lot older & wiser than me while I was still working.

• My father worked there.

  He was a tool & die maker which made him skilled labor before the term was even popularized.Of course that was also the pre union days.
  He/ himself designed many of the dies they used back then. That certainly wouldn't happen now.
  And then Chrysler bought it out in the 60's, but, he remained at that plant until he retired.He was hired there in the 40's fresh out of high school.
  Wow, folks, thanks for the memories!