Oak Park Industries

Flint Axle works.

Article from Michigan Manufacturers in January 1911. 

This photo shows the Flint Varnish Works (built in 1901 and incorporated as the Flint Varnish & Color Works on December 14, 1909) viewed from the Flint Axle Works. This view is facing southwest across St John street. W.F. Stewart is in the background.

1907.

Flint Axle Works viewed from the Flint Varnish Works facing northeast. This is the intersection of St John & Hamilton. Looking across the Flint river you can see the east side of Flint is a clean slate as was most of Flint after the logging era. The Flint Axle Works was created in 1900 as a subsidiary of the Durant-Dort Carriage Company known as department #5. By manufacturing axles needed for the carriage production, the company secured its sources of materials and parts. The company changed names from the Flint Axle Works to Walker-Weiss Axle Co in September 1912 and finally to the Flint Motor Axle Company in 1914. Flint Axle Works was the first industry to locate in the Oak Park development and reached a wartime payroll of 600 workers in 1918. After World War I, motor plants started creating their own foundries, forges and stamping plants which forced the Flint Motor Axle company to cease operations in 1924. In 1933 Buick Motor Company bought this property, razed the old buildings and it became a parking lot. Steve Weiss contacted me and stated that "My grandfather, Fred J. Weiss originally went to Flint, MI in 1900 to establish the Flint Axle Works and later bought it from Dort-Durant and later still sold the property to GM.".

This view is looking across the Buick site in 1911 is facing north west across the Flint river. The bridge at lower left never existed. In one old print from this era the river looks as wide as the Mississippi so I'm not sure what they were trying to convey with the bridges but the buildings are all correct. The intersection at the bottom is Hamilton Avenue coming in from the east and St.John St. (later changed to James P.Cole blvd.) entering from the north. They meet right in front of the Flint Axle Works later renamed the Walker-Weiss Axle Co.

  Links:

Hamilton Avenue and the Dupont plant.

Suspension bridge at Hamilton Avenue

Interior of Flint Varnish and Color Works February 1920.  Original link.

A 1916 view across the intersection of St Johns Street and Hamilton Avenue. This is facing south-west.  Dupont bought the Varnish Works in 1918.  

Buick 1911

Walker Weiss Axle Company

Background of William T. Walker.

This was the first factory built in the Oak Park Industrial Complex, which would later become the largest grouping of factories for the sole purpose of building automobiles (BUICK) in the world. Later to be surpassed by the Ford Rouge complex in Detroit Michigan.  Flint Motor Axle Link.

The spot that this factory occupied would later become a parking lot and is still vacant as of this posting. This view is facing north east.

This group photo shows some of the men who worked in the rear-end housing department at Walker-Weiss Axle Co., Flint, which built axles for some early auto makers. The firm was headed by W. Thomas Walker, Fred J. Weiss and former Durant Dort sales manager Charles H. Bonbright. It was an outgrowth of the Flint Axle Co. which moved to Flint to build axles for Durant-Dort in 1900. Later the firm became the Flint Motor Axle Co. but went out of business in 1924.

The Flint Journal article was supplied by Steve Weiss Grandson of Fred J. Weiss. 

This is how the factory looked after Walker-Weiss took over control of the Flint Axle works and built numerous additions. In my time James P. Cole blvd. would be routed directly through the location where this factory once stood. Hamilton Avenue would  cross the Flint river just behind this addition to the south end of the factory. In the foreground is the old original St. Johns Street which would be relocated farther east towards the Flint river and actually run directly through the center-line of this factory. Only a small parking lot would exist here in my time. I only parked in it a few times when the other lots were full.                                    Link to view new street routing.                                                                          August 21 1920 addition announcement.

This 1922 advertisement shows the name and product changes. 

Fred J. Weiss.

Genesee County History from 1916

In the year 1900 Flint was keeping step with the march of progress and with its vehicle factories and other industries had grown to be a community of about thirteen thousand people. It was a city equipped with all things conducive to ideal working conditions, coupled with comfortable homes and a most enjoyable environment.
About this time David Dunbar Buick, a practical engineer, was working on a gasoline engine upon which he had secured a patent, and was operating a small plant for its manufacture in Detroit. the Flint Wagon Works company, seeing a market for stationary farm engines through their farm wagon agencies, purchased the business of Mr. Buick and removed it to Flint, building for the purpose a factory which now forms a part of the Mason Motor Company. Meanwhile Mr. Buick, with the assistance of Walter L. Marr, now chief engineer of the Buick Motor Company, built the first Buick automobile, which was practically the old "Model F" car. The officers of the Wagon Works company brought the car to the attention of Mr. Durant, who was one of the first manufacturers in the country to realize that the motor-driven vehicle was destined to displace the horse. He foresaw the possibilities of manufacturing automobiles in large quantities and, in spite of the antagonism which prevailed among skeptical persons, entered the automobile field with the courage and determination born of his vision of an evolution to come in the means of transportation. In 1904 Mr. Durant formed the Buick Motor Company and the plant was moved to Jackson, Michigan, where the old buildings of the Imperial Wheel company were utilized pending the erection of the first Buick factory at Oak Park. 
During the year 1900, men interested in the advancement of the city conceived the idea of enlarging the area of Flint, to provide for future development. The result was the platting of Oak park subdivision to the north of the city limits. The Durant-Dort company was behind the movement, and through the efforts of its officials and with the hearty co-operation of the business men, Mrs. Minnie Loranger, daughter of William Hamilton, who had owned the land, and William C. Durant, acting as trustee for the Flint Factory Improvement Association, arranged for the opening of the plat. About ninety of the three hundred acres platted consisted of a dense oak forest, from which the subdivision received its name. Out of the three hundred acres, one hundred were set aside to furnish sites for future industrial concerns. The balance was divided into residence lots and sold. The profits accruing from the sale of these lots were set aside as a fund to be used by the association in bringing new factories to the city. To this movement may be credited the securing of the Flint Axle Works (now the Walker-Weiss Axle Company) and the J. B. Armstrong Manufacturing Company. Later, through the constructive genius of Mr. Durant, there came the Buick Motor Company, Weston-Mott company, the Imperial Wheel Works plant, later occupied by the Monroe Motor Company, and now a unit of the Buick plant; the Flint Varnish Works, the W. F. Stewart Company, Champion Ignition Company, and the Michigan Motor Castings Company.
As factory after factory arose where there had been but woodland and cultivated fields a short time before, the western part of the plat became dotted with residences and business places. In 1916 Oak park is one of the most thickly populated sections of the city, being the home of thousands of men employed in the great factories of the north end industrial section.
The first years' output of the Buick Company factory was sixteen automobiles. The second year it produced five hundred, and at the beginning of the third year Mr. Durant completed plans for a plant and organization to develop the increasing volume of business which the great Buick Motor Plant, the largest group of factory buildings in the world given over to the manufacture of one make of automobile, was destined to enjoy.
The original three-hundred-acre tract known as the Hamilton farm, is now the site of affiliated factories which cover eighty acres of ground and from which in 1916 were shipped sixty thousand automobiles, with a production of one hundred and twenty thousand planned for  1917.                                                                    1908.
In 1908 Mr. Durant organized the General motors Company, of which the Buick Motor Company was a subsidiary plant. Into this corporation was brought the Cadillac motor Car company of Detroit, for which the corporation paid nearly five million dollars in cash; the Olds Motor Works, of Lansing; the Oakland Motor Car Company, the Northway Motor Company, of Detroit; the Jackson-Church-Wilcox Company, of Saginaw, the Weston-Mott Company, and the General Motors Truck Company, of Pontiac.
The first year the sales of the General Motors Company exceeded $34,000,000 making Mr. Durant the recognized leader in the field of motor cars. The profits of the General Motors Company in 1909 were over $9,000,000, and the second year of business resulted in profits exceeding $10,000,000. From its inception the General Motors Company was a holding company, each unit of the organization being operated upon a separate basis.
The results obtained by Mr. Durant and his associates were most gratifying. One of the most important industries secured for Oak park was he Weston-Mott Company, a small manufacturing concern in Utica, New York, which was induced to transfer its equipment and force of workmen to Flint, to produce axles for the Buick Motor Company, the Weston-Mott Company, starting in one factory building, increased its production in accordance with the demands made by the Buick and other motor companies, until today it occupies five immense factory buildings, and has become one of the most important units of the General motors Corporation, by which it was later absorbed.
In 1908 Durant-Dort Carriage company established, in this industrial section, the Flint Varnish Works. From a very small beginning the company has grown to be the largest maker of high-grade finishing natural for automobile and railroad use in the world. The company was sold by the Durant-Dort concern and reorganized as the Flint varnish and Color Works, and William W. Mountain, who had been the general manager, became president of the organization. The company now produces everything in the line of paint, colors, enamels and varnish utilized in the finishing of automobiles and cars. In 1916 the company increased the size of its plant, enabling it to more than double its production, and also added a Canadian branch at Toronto, Ontario.
Also located in the center of this great industrial center of Flint are the following manufacturing institutions: The Champion Ignition Company, with its capacity of seventy-five thousand spark plugs a day, and the Michigan Motor Castings Company, which in 1916 occupied a new foundry building costing six hundred thousand dollars and having a capacity of two hundred and fifty tons of gray iron per day, both of which are units of the General Motors Company; the W. F. Stewart Company, producing automobile bodies; the Walker-Weiss Axle Company; the J. B. Armstrong Company, makers of steel springs; and the million-dollar plant of the Commonwealth Power Company. The latter plant is used to transfer the one hundred and forty thousand voltage brought three hundred miles overland from an Au Sable river and used to furnish electricity for commercial and domestic purposes, including the operation of all factories and the city street car lines.
Flint had sprung from a town of thirteen thousand in 1900 to a city of thirty-eight thousand in 1910, enjoying at this time the distinction of having the largest increase in population and also in postal receipts of any city in the United States, according to the government statistics. Meantime property values had made phenomenal advances, the real estate dealers had placed thousands of residence lots on the market, streets were cut through portion of the city previously used for garden lands, factory building after factory building was being erected, and Flint in 1910 was the typical boom town of the West.
The peculiar conditions of this period may be noted with interest, as it was impossible in any way for the city officials to provide for the influx of its rapidly-increasing population. Up to the time of the erection of the present post office building, patrons of the general delivery window would stand inland for one hundred feet to receive their daily mail; hotels and boarding houses were turning people away, and lodgings were at a premium, some of the keepers of large boarding houses in the factory district renting their beds to first day and then night "shifts." It is said that about this time a theatrical company and a base-ball team who were scheduled to appear in Flint were forced to seek accommodations for the night in the neighboring town of Lapeer. In 1909-10 there were estimated to have been one thousand people who were living in tents along the river banks and in the woods adjacent to the factory buildings.
In 1912 Mr. Durant, the genius who was becoming a center of attraction in the manufacturing and financial world. Organized the Chevrolet Motor Company, which was soon followed by the establishment of subsidiary plants in New York, Tarrytown, St. Louis, Oakland, California; Bay City, Toledo, Fort Worth and Oshawa, Ontario. The Chevrolet Motor Company is anticipating an output in 1916 of eighty thousand cars, and is making plans for a production of one hundred and ninety-four thousand cars in 1917.
The Chevrolet company first occupied the buildings of the old Flint Wagon Works and later took over the plant of the Mason Motor Company. In 1915 these structures became overcrowded with machinery and employees, which necessitated plans for a number of large additions. Those already completed or in process of construction are a large new plant for the manufacture of Mason Motors, a mammoth three story factory, an axle plant, and a separate heating plant. This enormous expansion has made necessary the construction of several miles of railroad sidings, the erection of a new steel bridge for factory and railroad purposes only, and a new city bridge at Wilcox Street, to care for the greatly increased traffic.                                                                                                                                                                                                             December 1916
What the Buick Motor Company and other plants have meant to the north end of the city, the Chevrolet Company has meant to the western section. The fourth ward, originally known as "The Pinery," a rather less improved section of Flint than the other wards, in 1916 became crowded with thousands of workmen who sought residences in the near vicinity of the great manufacturing plant. The expansion of the city by platting has resulted in the erection of homes as far as three miles beyond the city limits, where a real estate concern platted twenty acres into one-acre and half-acre plats, and sold them all within a few days.
Today the great companies, the General Motors and the Chevrolet, which Mr. Durant organized and which have meant so much to Flint, have a combined volume of business of $200,000,000, which is more than the income of the New York Central and Lake Shore railroad.
In 1914 Mr. Durant disposed of his holdings in the Durant-Dort Carriage Company. Shortly after this the Dort Motor Car Company was organized with J. Dallas Dort as president. The new automobile concern took over a large portion of the carriage plant and increased its output so rapidly that in 1916 it became necessary to expand. There was no vacant land adjacent to the Dort group of factory buildings, so the company purchased two entire blocks of residence property between Smith streets and the Flint river, and South street and the Grand Trunk railroad tracks, razed the dwellings thereon and started the construction of a mammoth two-story assembling plant which will cost when completed ninety thousand dollars. The company has also purchased twenty acres at the south end of the city at the intersection of the Pere Marquette and Grand Trunk railways. In 1915-16 the output of the Dort Motor Car Company was nine thousand cars.
Though motor car manufacturing has evidently become the principal interest of Mr. Dort, still he has not yet abandoned the manufacture of carriages, considerable space in the Durant-Dort Carriage Company plant being still utilized for the building of carriages, the output of this branch of the business being fifteen thousand jobs in 1915.
Other accessory companies to the automobile industry are the Marvel Carburetor Company, the Imperial wheel Company, the United States Brass and Iron foundry, Flint Pattern Company and several minor manufacturing concerns.
In the meantime the W. A. Paterson Company, the pioneer vehicle manufacturers of Flint, had also turned their attention to the building of automobiles. A large portion of the group of factory buildings, located in the heart of the city, were devoted to that industry, the different models proving from the outset very popular with the public. The Paterson Motor Company is now building about fifteen hundred cars per annum.
Thus from the establishment of a single industry has arisen a vast combination of allied interests, which hare known the world over. While the growth and progressiveness of any one commonwealth can only be due to combined efforts, still the citizens of Flint realize that without the foresight and genius and generalship of such a leader as Mr. Durant., Flint would not have been the manufacturing and commercial center that it is in 1916 when this book goes to press.                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                             1908 September.  Click on page to continue reading.

Armstrong Spring Company & Marvel Carburetor Co..

A 1907 map showing the layout of the factories in the Oak Park Industrial Complex . The Armstrong plant is at the lower right in the grouping. You will notice that the Imperial Wheel plant does not look quite right. It was probably under construction at the time this map was being compiled. I have always thought it was being built starting in 1904 but it may have been later judging by this map. This map supplied by Leonard Thygesen.

I found a couple of different patents that were filed under the name of the founder John  Belmer Armstrong after he was deceased. I figure these were initiated by his son Robert who was the one who brought the company to the United States from Guelph Ontario Canada where many early entrepreneurs in Flint had their  early training. One other notable would be William A. Patterson, the first large scale producer of carriages in Flint during the 19th century.  Go here for a comprehensive history of the Armstrong family.

This view is looking north at the south-end of the J.B. Armstrong spring plant. St. John Street is in the foreground (James P. Cole Blvd. today). One interesting date was given by Buick historian Don Bent in his book "A Place Called Buick" he says the first set of springs delivered to the Buick factory on Kearsley Street for the first Flint built Buick was on January 1, 1904. The story remembered by James Parkhill who succeeded Robert Armstrong as president of the Company said this. "They were hauled over in Bert Armstrong's 1902 curved-dash Oldsmobile". The very first automobile built in Flint was built by Judge Charles H. Wisner,  possibly as early as 1898. The carriage house which was his workshop was written about in The Detroit Journal of October 10, 1901 as being one of the best appointed machine shops in the state. I just so happened to be there the day they were moving it to it's new home in Crossroads village near Flint, where it can still be seen today. I was skipping school that day. It was located at the southwest corner of east Court and Lapeer Street. I looked in the windows with the glass now removed and it was already elevated for moving. It was bright red with white trim as I recall. It was being moved to make way for the new business loop through Flint called the Buick & U.A.W. expressway or I-475 as we know it today. Wisner's first car was known as Wisner's "Buzz Wagon". Wisner built a total of three cars and two of them are said to have had their final assembly done at the Armstrong plant on St. John Street. Robert (Bert) Armstrong supposedly helped Wisner with those two. One side note is that James Parkhill erected the first gasoline station in Flint during 1905. A recreation of this station was for a time set up at the Sloan museum in Flint.   James Parkhill Flint Garage 1906.  James Parkhill's book: To My Friends: by James Parkhill 

A closeup of the J.B. Armstrong spring factory, who's location relative to the Buick factories is shown below.                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                              December 1912. 

March 1909.

The red arrow shows the Armstrong Spring factory in 1910. The Flint river is in the foreground showing a bridge that never existed in this exact configuration. This view is facing west. Armstrong is located on St John street which was notorious in the 19th century logging era for it's many taverns. In this drawing Armstrong is located in what was called since the '20s "Cigarette  park" because of trees there that had fruit that resembled cigarettes. It's official name in later years was the  James Cussan's park and was a Vietnam war memorial or just Veterans Park. In real life the river curved farther east here (look at 1907 map above).  Just north along the river is the Flint City Water Works. Farther north of the bridge is the Flint Axle Works. On the opposite side of St. Johns is the Flint Varnish Works (future Dupont) and across Hamilton Avenue to the north is the Imperial Wheel plant. South of Hamilton towards the top is the Stewart factories #3 and #4. The zig-zag building on the south side of Hamilton is the original Buick garage #08. It was not built exactly in this shape. Sometimes these drawings would show what was planned but did not happen. Directly north across Hamilton Avenue is the Buick office and factories. North of that along Industrial Avenue is the Weston-Mott axle plant and north of that is Michigan Motors Casting.  

From Don Bent's book "A Place Called Buick" a great book by the way.

Inside Armstrong.

Inside Armstrong.

Inside Armstrong.

Inside Armstrong.

Short story from an advertisement shown farther above. This and the  photos above  came from Don Bent's book and was credited to Leroy Cole an older Flint and Buick historian.  

Marvel took over the Armstrong factory in 1921. I'm thinking this is the old Peerless building on Mill St. next door to the old Cornwall Whip Socket plant. Marvel first expanded operations to Flint in 1912 to be near the auto plants there. So they would be in this location for about 8 years.  This may be the three story building on Mill, mentioned in the article below.                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                              Sept 1912.

November 1904.

Add caption

   

1906  Auto Brass & Aluminum co. lawsuit.   

1922 Do not confuse with Thomas Buick's factory.

  

Link: 

Durant-Dort Factories East of Saginaw Street.

This is a 1916 article speaking of the outstanding one day production of Marvel.

A 1916 Marvel advertisement showing that they also supplied some carburetors for Ford. 

This view of the old J.B. Armstrong spring plant is after the Marvel Carbureter Company has moved from Mill St. on the east side of the river to this location on the west side of the river. This view was obviously taken from the Dupont factory (old Flint Varnish Works) which is casting it's shadow onto St. John Street. This view is facing south with the Flint river partially visible in the distance. This is from the book "Fire Department City of Flint 1916. 
                                                        Hamilton Avenue And St. John Street.                                                                                            July 1916.                                                                                                                                                                                                                        December 1916.

                                                                                                                                                                                 

This is from the book "Fire Department City of Flint 1916. 

The Wall Street Journal reports on G.M. taking control of Armstrong in early 1924. Don Bent of "A Place Called Buick" says that the purchase took place on January 1, 1924 of the Armstrong Spring on (Hamilton Avenue) which I have not found that location myself and cannot find where it could have been located on Hamilton. 'Maybe it was a typo'? A quote from Don's book says "After Armstrong Spring moved from the factory on St. Johns Street., the building was purchased by Marvel Carburetor in 1921. In March, 1928, Marvel bought Schebler Carburetor Company in Indianapolis. In June,1928, Marvel became one of the four companies that formed Borg-Warner. In 1931, all Schebler production was consolidated to Flint. In 1934, it officially became the Marvel-Schebler division of Borg-Warner. The Division was moved to Illinois in 1948". I have found all this to be correct. He also has Armstrong merging with Buick on May 13, 1932. 

This is the site in the 1920's. Compare these two maps for locations of  certain  Buick factories discussed below. These maps were taken from the book "Our Days Together At Buick City".

This map depicts the Buick site at the end.

These enlargements of the north Buick site from around 1947 show the location of the Armstrong Spring Company. This factory was built in 1919 and was used  for making Buick springs until Buick absorbed the company on May 13, 1932. Don Bent, the author of "A Place Called Buick" told me last year that he seemed to remember this building being used as a meat packing plant at some point after Armstrong vacated the premises. In the bottom blow-up  I have numbered the Buick buildings with their final designations at the time of demolition. Factory #10 was the big aluminum foundry built in 1941 and designated as building #20. At the end of the war it became factory #05 for a short time and then got it's final designation of #10 which most of us still  alive today knew it as. The old  Buick aluminum foundry #30,  which was changed to #03 in 1963 when the old #03 forge plant south of Leith Street was demolished had some of it's work moved there and became #03, the new spring plant at Buick.  It was built between 1917-1918. Factory #81 got it's new designation in 1981 and was the old grey iron foundry #70. Factory #81 was the first Buick factory to go with the honor system and do away with time clocks. The old Armstrong building would be removed to make way for the new Buick engine plant #36 built between 1951-1952. Newman Street and Sanford Street would no longer exist after that time and Black Avenue would loose it's east end. The dirt paths visible to the north-east of the Armstrong building are the remnants of the Tank test track of World War II. Division Street turns into Selby Street at the Stewart Street intersection. Division Street was not a Flint City Street and was only used by Buick. Andrews Street was the one most workers know today because that was the way into the parking lots at the engine plant. That is the old Pere Marquette rail line shown at the right. It would later be the C & O rail road.

This circa 1947 photo of the Buick site from a Leonard Thygesen print shows the location of the Armstrong Spring Company before they were absorbed by General Motors and then Buick.  This is shown in greater detail above.  The 1916 Armstrong addition. 

Here is the old (at that time) Armstrong factory on Stewart Street. It is shown in the background during construction of Buick factory #10 in 1941. It is sitting directly on the site of the future engine plant #36.

March 1917. 

Original 1930