All Things Buick: The W.F. Stewart Factories In Flint.

Wednesday, October 5, 2011

The W.F. Stewart Factories In Flint.

Here is the correct spelling for Beardslee, from the Flint City Directory of 1881-1882. Beardslee is spelled many different ways on the old maps and such. It must also be mentioned that W.F. Stewart located to Pontiac, Michigan in the mid 1880's for 4 years, after leaving the Beardslee & Gillies location for the first time, he later bought their business outright.

Here is W.F.Stewart factory #4 at the north Flint site at Industrial and Hamilton.

Here is W.F.Stewart factory #3 at the north Flint site on Harriet st.

Here is W.F. Stewart's factory #1 and #2 located at the old Beardslee & Gillies site in west Flint. Located between Kearsley St. and Second st.

This view is facing south across Detroit st. (Martin Luther King Jr. ave. now) and beyond McFarland Park and Saginaw st., "after the Walsh building was built". This shows the location of W.F. Stewart's first buggy "body" building location. His barn shaped building (with false front) was located just above the trash cans shown on Detroit st (the area with the large awning). The Walsh building was built in 1910 and demolished in 1971 for the riverbank project. M.S.U. in Flint now has possession of the site.

Here is a view of W.F. Stewart's first buggy body building (at the left) and you are facing east during the famous Flint flood of 1904. That is the Pere Marquette bridge crossing the Flint River. All the people in the foreground are standing on the Saginaw street bridge.

Here is W.F.Stewart's first location for building buggy body's at the intersection of Saginaw and Detroit streets. His shop is shown at the extreme right. This photo is from around 1905. This would be the future site of the Walsh building. This is the north-east side of the bridge over the Flint river.

This is the north Flint site in 1907.

This shows the Beardslee & Gillies site in 1873 as described below.

This shows the location of factory #1 and #2 at the west Flint site in 1899, located near the future "1903" site of the Buick Motor Works on west Kearsley st. (shown with the star). It is said that the first Buick body's came from factory #1. This is the same location as the Beardslee & Gillies planing mill in which Stewart originally occupied the second floor and then bought outright later (see the posting before this one for that history). This area was known as the "HALL FLATS".