Ford Motor Company Automobile Assembly Plant in Charlotte

[monsoon]

I was not aware that Ford Motor company built an automobile assembly plant in Charlotte. Pictured below, it was finished in 1924 and handled 400 vehicles/day. It was built for a cost of $253M in 2008 dollars. It was located on Statesville Rd. though I am not sure if it survives today.

They used to make tires here too.

[Windsurfer]

Yep, still here. I'll try to snag a photo on the way home today. Pretty interesting brickwork too.

[Eastman]

I believe during WW2 they built missiles there also.

[rockhilljames]

Sweet. What do they use if for now, or is it vacant?

[JayGee]

Yep, still here. I'll try to snag a photo on the way home today. Pretty interesting brickwork too.

[Charlotte_native]

Its been written about in an article last year in Uptown Magazine. The plant had many lives, including Model T's, cold war missles, and WWII supply hub. Skip past the 'North End' part to get to the Ford part. The buildings are still very much there -- brick work is fantastic. The business park built around it is still called Hercules for one of the missles built there.

http://www.uptownclt.com/content/view/156/

Sweet. What do they use if for now, or is it vacant?

[Windsurfer]

Man, you shouldn't have said anything. Now somebody will want to tear it down!

[Eastman]

No kidding.

Here're a couple of shots from Statesville Ave. looking towards the complex. There are so many buildings I'm not sure which one was the one Monsoon posted. At any rate, pretty nice brickwork on this one.

At second glance, I see in Monsoon's photo some of the intricate brickwork, so it is the same buildling. Looks like they bricked up the porticos.

[Charlotte_native]

Just realized the part of the article that talked about the Ford plant wasn't in the link -- info cut and pasted below:

Located across from the North End Square site, between Statesville Avenue and North Graham Street, sits a huge complex of buildings on a total of about 60 acres. The two sites were once part of a single industrial complex and have since been divided into what is now the Hercules Business Park and the Rite-Aid Distribution Center. Of the many industrial uses and buildings in the area, this is one of the largest and arguably the one with the most colorful history. As a native to the city, I

[Norm2]

Wasn't Greif Bros. Corp in that building, or one of the buildings in that complex at one point?