The Packard Plant is a former automobile-manufacturing factory in Detroit, Michigan where luxury Packard cars were made by the Packard Motor Car Company

Packard

Packard was an American luxury-type automobile marque built by the Packard Motor Car Company of Detroit, Michigan, and later by the Studebaker-Packard Corporation of South Bend, Indiana...

 of Detroit, Michigan

Michigan

Michigan is a U.S. state located in the Great Lakes Region of the United States of America. The name Michigan is the French form of the Ojibwa word mishigamaa, meaning "large water" or "large lake"....

, and later by the Studebaker-Packard Corporation

Studebaker-Packard Corporation

The Studebaker-Packard Corporation was the entity created by the purchase of the Studebaker Corporation of South Bend, Indiana, by the Packard Motor Car Company of Detroit, Michigan, in 1954.Packard acquired Studebaker in the transaction...

 of South Bend

South Bend, Indiana

The city of South Bend is the county seat of St. Joseph County, Indiana, United States, on the St. Joseph River near its southernmost bend, from which it derives its name. As of the 2010 Census, the city had a total of 101,168 residents; its Metropolitan Statistical Area had a population of 316,663...

, Indiana

Indiana

Indiana is a US state, admitted to the United States as the 19th on December 11, 1816. It is located in the Midwestern United States and Great Lakes Region. With 6,483,802 residents, the state is ranked 15th in population and 16th in population density. Indiana is ranked 38th in land area and is...

.

The 3,500,000-square-foot (325,000 m²), plant was designed by Albert Kahn and is located on over 40 acres (0.142 km²) of land on East Grand Boulevard. It included the first use of reinforced concrete for industrial construction in Detroit.

The Packard plant was opened in 1903 and at the time was considered the most modern automobile manufacturing facility in the world with skilled craftsmen who practiced over eighty trades. The factory closed in 1958, but the buildings remain standing as of 2011. The City of Detroit has pledged legal action to have it demolished or secured.

Since its abandonment, the plant has served as a haven for graffiti

Graffiti

Graffiti is the name for images or lettering scratched, scrawled, painted or marked in any manner on property....

 artists, urban explorers

Urban exploration

Urban exploration is the examination of the normally unseen or off-limits parts of urban areas or industrial facilities. Urban exploration is also commonly referred to as infiltration, although some people consider infiltration to be more closely associated with the exploration of active or...

, paintballers

Paintball

Paintball is a sport in which players compete, in teams or individually, to eliminate opponents by tagging them with capsules containing water soluble dye and gelatin shell outside propelled from a device called a paintball marker . Paintballs have a non-toxic, biodegradable, water soluble...

 and auto scrappers

Motor vehicle theft

Motor vehicle theft is the criminal act of stealing or attempting to steal a motor vehicle...

. Scavengers have extensively stripped the buildings of wiring and other building materials. A number of the outer buildings were in use by businesses as recently as 2007. However in 2010 after renting space in the plant for over 52 years the last tenant, Chemical Processing, left in favor of nearby suburban Madison Heights

Madison Heights, Michigan

Madison Heights is a city in Oakland County of the U.S. state of Michigan. It is a suburb of Detroit. As of the 2010 census, its population was 29,694.- History :...

.

External links

• Detroit News
• The Abandoned Packard Plant at Detroiturbex.com
• Packard Plant Photos