The PACKARD complex

[Sixty8panther]

What can I say... this is an apt analogy for our Country as a whole.

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http://onlyndetroit.com/html/decay/ond-001...yunderworld.htm

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I wonder how much manufacturing will remain state-side when my

daughters are my age...?

On the other hand the city of Detroit seems to be the most amazing

& interesting example of decay & urban ruins. I would have a field day

there with a camera. I bet i would fill up a 200GB hard drive with

photos in less than a week.

[Sixty8panther]

Wow... I'm just glued to my monitor reading through this & soaking

up the tragic, beautiful & disturbing photos.

To think these former plants, these buildings that are now basically

just ruins, just $h!piles of dirty filth & or gone forever all together

were once the mighty backbone of the industry of the world's

leading Superpower. This mortar, brick & steel: what used to be

GM, Studebaker, Dodge, Packard, Fisher Body Etc. is now left to

just implode, burn or rot like in some Post-Apocalyptic movie.

The Rome analogy is apt.

Behold the 20th century Equivalent of the Colosseum.

Just like a train wreck... I have spent about two hours sifting through this

gut-wrenching site. It's both the former beauty, majestic glory & current

strife that fascinate me. I came || close to moving out to Detroit in 2002

to just break away fro it all here in Mass & seek employment at GM.

I wonder if I would have done better or worse than I am today...

Anyway check out this link, this site is one of the best, most interesting &

informative little corners of the WWW/'net I have found in months!

http://onlyndetroit.com/html/decay/ond-0016-all_abord.htm

The Michigan Central is often seen as a physical metaphor for what has happened to the city of Detroit. Its fate… is the people's fate. Its life was the people's life, and only through these and other historic photos can we appreciate that life now. I imagine that if this city ever truly committed to mass transit, that this building could one day have a soul and purpose again.

then & now:

[balthazar]

If I was back in Detroit, I would crawl into those automotive-related buildings, walk to the centers of their great floors and stretch out on the floor on my back, head turned to one side & ear to the ground, straining to hear the echos of industrial might -never equaled- long gone.

I would scrabble thru the ruins, searching for some smallest tangible sign they were there... and upon finding one, I would crawl with it into the deepest, filthiest, darkest corner, and I would sleep and hope to dream...

[Sixty8panther]

Well said. I'm on the same wavelength... I too would consider these sites a Mecca.

[FUTURE_OF_GM]

God, I'd love to go to Detroit...

My GF an I go "urban exploring" here in old industrial complexes. It's something that is very popular with architectural students across the country. problem is, you can get 1) injured and 2) charged.

We'd have a BLAST in Detroit!

[Robert Hall]

God, I'd love to go to Detroit...

My GF an I go "urban exploring" here in old industrial complexes. It's something that is very popular with architectural students across the country. problem is, you can get 1) injured and 2) charged.

We'd have a BLAST in Detroit!

Or 3) get killed..the ones in Detroit are probably full of rabid dogs, crackheads, homeless people...

[Camino LS6]

Fascinating ruins.

[Teh Ricer Civic!]

You will see a return of manufacturing to North America. Fuel prices will undoubtedly go back up and simple logistics will necessitate their return.

[Drew Dowdell]

You will see a return of manufacturing to North America. Fuel prices will undoubtedly go back up and simple logistics will necessitate their return.

+1

[balthazar]

Ice scrapers and corn cob forks don't count for much of anything.

[Robert Hall]

If I was back in Detroit, I would crawl into those automotive-related buildings, walk to the centers of their great floors and stretch out on the floor on my back, head turned to one side & ear to the ground, straining to hear the echos of industrial might -never equaled- long gone.

I would scrabble thru the ruins, searching for some smallest tangible sign they were there... and upon finding one, I would crawl with it into the deepest, filthiest, darkest corner, and I would sleep and hope to dream...

I'd recommend a HAZMAT suit..

[balthazar]

Maybe well-advised, but there may still be PACKARD DNA drifted into the corners, and I would need to get it on bare skin. I've urban explorered before (Baltimore)- I ain't afraid; I can out-crazy the crazies.

[Robert Hall]

Speaking of Packards, I saw this one up close yesterday at the Copperstate 1000 kickoff...beautiful car.

[balthazar]

1941 Series Nineteenth... looks to me to be a One Ten, as it's missing trim a One Twenty would wear.

[Sixty8panther]

XP's dad has a 110 Parts car sedan.

Well... it's the rusty remains of 40% of what was once

a '40 Packard 110. I wanna buy it & make a Rat Rod.

[Robert Hall]

1941 Series Nineteenth... looks to me to be a One Ten, as it's missing trim a One Twenty would wear.

Not sure on the year, but it didn't have the catwalk grilles I've seen on pics of '41 110s. I think I heard someone there refer to it as a Darrin (note the cut down doors). There wasn't a placard.

Further research turned up a pic of a '42 180 Darrin that looks like it (horizontal grilles above the bumper on each side).

Edited April 7, 2009 by moltar

[mightymouse]

I was thru this area last week(shivers) on a gray rainy day... its not too far from Hamtramack Asm. plant.

We drove down to tour and study some load fixtures stuffing DTS's and Lucernes with parts- slowed to about

half the speed the line was designed to run. What a contrast of modern asm. and this tragic historic circumstance.

Makes my brain spin. I also have been to the Packard proving grounds near 22mile and Van Dyke for many cars shows,

they used to have a nascar like banked track to test the Packards on.

Anyway I was really struck with how some areas of Detroit looked when going there off the beaten path and wished I brought a Camera.

The areas in these pictures are really big pieces of land and the experience left me feeling small but fortunate.

Last summer I went to a car show at the Ren Cen, and on the way to the river front parking, they staged us past this dilapidated area

with burned out bldgs and factories full of smashed hopes and dreams... almost felt like crying I said ALMOST. yeah but super wierd feeling.

Edited April 8, 2009 by mightymouse

[regfootball]

those photos are really telling. i think maybe if people saw the issues regarding detroit played out in pictures rather than internet spewage, maybe people would wake up and understand what an issue it is 'global economy'.

everyone in this country will have a day of reckoning. Someone told me the other day about a relative that had a doctor appt. the PA or whatever did the exam and sent the info and charts to the doctor....in INDIA. SO now even our health care is being outsourced.

We won't see the 'people that matter' care about this until all the stuff like 'marketing and sales' starts to get outsourced. Or financial.

[balthazar]

>>"Not sure on the year, but it didn't have the catwalk grilles I've seen on pics of '41 110s. I think I heard someone there refer to it as a Darrin (note the cut down doors). "<<

Makes sense; that is the 'Darrin Dip' in the beltline... and it's still not jiving 100% with the references I have. All the '41s & '42s (non-Clippers) wear fender 'cat claw' marks, including a pic I'm looking at of a '41 One-Eighty Darrin-bodied convertible.

If it has the '42's horizontal outboards grilles, '42 works for me... but someone (or Darrin) yanked the cat claw marks off on this one.

Sometimes I forget that this era is still the tail end of the coachbuilt era, and one-offs were not uncommon.

[knightfan26917]

MY goodness.

Looking at those pics ... almost seems that you're looking at the Titanic....or, for that matter, in some ways, Miss Belvidere....

*sighs*

As sad as it is, I love looking at "then and now" pics ... and wondering about the lives that entered the buildings/places previously.....

Cort | 35swm | "Mr Monte Carlo"."Mr Road Trip" | pig valve.pacemaker ...RT 66 = Sept 5-16, '09

WRMNshowcase.legos.HO.models.MCs.RTs.CHD = http://www.chevyasylum.com/cort

"I get a little bit nervous that the best of all the years have gone by" ... Bonnie Tyler ... 'Total Eclipse of the Heart'

[Sixty8panther]

I can't help but think that not only did we

manage to throw it all away but we also

somehow made a mess so big & complex

that we've painted ourselves into a corner

while all around us the warning signs were

blatantly obvious.

As sad as it is, I love looking at "then and now" pics ... and wondering about the lives that entered the buildings/places previously.....

Yes. I too have that thought process at times.

Balthy's "Packard DNA" comment is dead on.

[knightfan26917]

Yes. I too have that thought process at times.

Good ... glad I'm not the only one .

Cort | 35swm | "Mr Monte Carlo"."Mr Road Trip" | pig valve.pacemaker ...Chitown #2 = 07/25/09

WRMNshowcase.legos.HO.models.MCs.RTs.CHD = http://www.chevyasylum.com/cort

"You really don't remember" ... Laura Branigan ... 'Gloria'