The Abandoned American Motors Corporation Headquarters
The former American Motors Corporation Headquarters sits abandoned, an industrial castle on Plymouth Road in Detroit, Michigan. If you face north on Freeland Street, you’ll see the building’s front tower standing tall, a crumbling beacon of times when Detroit was the heart of the US automotive industry, dominating all other cities in the country.
Kelvinator Appliance factory
While AMC may have been the last to occupy the massive 1.5 million-square-foot space, its life started when it was built as a Kelvinator appliance factory between 1926-27. The Kelvinator corporation was established in 1916 in Detroit by engineer Nathaniel Wales. The company specialized in manufacturing commercially available household refrigeration appliances. With the introduction of the very first fully self-contained refrigeration system in 1925, the company took off. They were then able to expand, opening new offices in Europe. As operations continued to grow, the need for a new factory arose. An area along Plymouth Road on the northwest side of Detroit was chosen, and construction soon began. Amedeo Leoni was hired to design the new plant, which included an office complex at the front of the building, with a three-story factory area complete with a power plant at the back.
Merging with Nash Motors
After 10 more years of growth, the company further expanded and merged with automaker Nash Motors, becoming Nash-Kelvinator. The Plymouth Road factory was chosen as the company’s headquarters, which would be expanded by an addition made in 1940. This addition brought the total square footage of the plant to 1.46 million on 57 acres, and also made it possible to increase production during World War II. During the war, Sikorsky Aircraft Corporation was tasked with building helicopters for the army, but was overwhelmed during production and unable to satisfy demand. The company reached out to Nash-Kelvinator and contracted them to do the final assembly work at the Plymouth Road plant. By 1944, after some production delays due to design changes, 262 helicopters had been finished at the plant and tested in a small airfield out back. It has been said that the airfield was the smallest in the country.
American Motors Corporation is formed
In 1954, Nash-Kelvinator would merge again, this time with Hudson Motors, forming the American Motors Corporation. The company decided to keep its headquarters within the Plymouth Road plant. As the plant transitioned to a research and design center for new cars, appliance manufacturing operations were moved to other factories.
AMC struggled for 6 years, finding it difficult to handle the many different product lines from companies it had acquired. By 1960, the company had become more organized and was selling 486,000 cars per year. Cars sold by AMC included the Rambler, Ambassador, and Metropolitan models, with later models introducing the AMX, Javelin, Hornet, and Gremlin.
Kelvinator sold off
In 1968, under the leadership of Roy D. Chapin Jr., the company sold off their Kelvinator appliance operations. AMC stayed headquartered in the Plymouth Road plant for the next five years, until announcing in 1973 that they would be moving their operations to a new building in Southfield.
As AMC moved from Detroit, other automakers were also beginning to leave the city. Detroit Mayor Coleman Young was so frustrated that he had urged residents of the city to no longer buy AMC vehicles. By 1975 the company had completed the move, and for the next 12 years, the Plymouth Road complex would operate as AMC’s engineering headquarters.
Chrysler buys AMC
In 1987, Chrysler bought out the company with a strong focus on their popular line of Jeep trucks and utility vehicles. The Plymouth Road complex became the Jeep and Truck Engineering Center and employed over 3,000 people throughout its offices and plant. The company would design well-known vehicles such as the Dodge Ram pickup and Jeep Grand Cherokee.
A large section of the plant that was no longer used was leased to Borman Food Stores during the 1990s. The company would later become Farmer Jack, and occupied office and factory space, which they renovated several times over years, even building new facilities, which included a fitness center and cafeteria.
Factory shuts down
In 1996, as the complex neared 70 years old, Chrysler was planning to move many of their employees out to a new research and design center in Auburn Hills. They had planned to transfer 3,200 employees over the following years. Unfortunately, in 2007 Chrysler filed for bankruptcy as the recession hit. Many of Chrysler’s older facilities were liquidated, and the Plymouth Road complex was put up for sale with an asking price of $10 million. By 2009, only 900 workers remained, most having been relocated to the Auburn Hills location. On June 5, 2009, the Plymouth Road complex was shut down for good.
The massive abandoned structure was sold to a private company for $2.3 million in 2010. Terry Williams, a Detroit businessman, had hoped to convert the factory into a treatment center for kids with autism. Williams was convicted in 2004 for running an automotive chop shop, and in 2012 ended up violating the Clean Air Act when he hauled tons of scrap metal from the building after tearing apart the entire 1940s addition. The building was seized from Williams in 2013, and he ended up in prison in July 2013. The building has remained empty and abandoned since.
