Merlin inspection building question

Posted by Steve203 On 2014/5/15 12:04:21

Maybe someone has a copy of the issue of the Cormorant with the plant history section.

What was happening in the Merlin test and inspection building, the one west of the railroad tracks, after the war?

I have been comparing photos and have a mystery. The drawing from 44 shows the building with a wing to the southwest, along Harper, where the test cells were. In the film Packard produced about their war work, there is a glimpse of this building, and it's forest of exhaust stacks on the roof.

In the photo from the 40s/early 50s, that wing appears to be gone, replaced by a parking lot. There is a forest of exhaust stacks on the roof of the east side of the building, which makes me think this is where the engine line was reinstalled after the war.

In the photo from 56, where the right of way for the freeway is being cleared, the north end of the inspection building has been cut back a good 100', but the western wing with the original exhaust stacks, which appears to be missing in the early 50s photo, appears, and the exhaust stacks on the east side of the building are gone, which would fit with the engine line moving to Utica two years earlier, if that is where the engine line was post war.

Thanks for any help on the history of this building.

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