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My local Packard Chapter gets a private tour of the remains of Studebaker Plant 84 (Body and Trim Assembly) this week end. I'll get some pics and post.

Many years ago I got to go to the Studebaker plant in South Bend and tour the area where the Avanti IIs were being made. I was impressed by the, then, modern Avantis being made in a very old facility. Look forward to your photos.

(o{}o)

Looking forward to your pix. Last I heard, 84 was going to be occupied by a data storage facility of some sort.

The Studebaker administration building is right across Lafayette St. I think those are the only two surviving buildings from the complex.

iirc, the back part of the Avanti plant, the multistory part, was built in the 1890s, one of several buildings that dated from Studie's horse and buggy days. It's gone now. That is now the site of the county jail.

Yes, there is a data company using parts of it. It will be nice, they will be having some prior employees on hand for brain picking.

There are more plants still up, South Bend Lathe moved into a couple of them.

I always enjoyed looking at the building when we would go to the baseball games sitting right across the street, wondering what was left in there.

It is so ironic, if you look right behind plant 84, the remains of Oliver is two blocks away. Even more cool, is that The Studebaker, and Oliver Mansions are on the same street blocks apart.

The history is amazing what went on in that town. The Studebaker Mansion, now called Tippecanoe place, is a great up scale restaurant.

<i>There are more plants still up, South Bend Lathe moved into a couple of them.</i>

I was at the Studebaker museum last week, and saw a blurb about South Bend Lathe moving into a building on Sample St. But when I look at the satellite view on Google Maps, the only things still standing are the foundry and building 92, which was on the south side of Sample. Switching to street view, the foundry was in the process of being torn down when the pix were taken and 92 was gone. The only large buildings on that block of Sample that I see are the police department and county jail, both newer construction. From information I have, the block between Sample and Indiana was just cleared in the last dozen years.

Enjoy the tour. If I was there, I would be picking the former employee's brains a lot. The museum has a small display on how Studie had production set up circa 1960. From the display it looked like just about everything had been consolidated in building 79 with body buildup and painting on the third floor, frame buildup on the second floor, then frame and body dropped to first floor for final assembly. It is certainly a more efficient layout than what they had been doing, building the bodies in 84, then shuttling them to 79 on rail cars. My question to the employees would be: am I interpreting the museum display correctly, that the small size of the Lark, and the production volume were such, that they did in fact consolidate body, frame and final assembly all in one building?

Quote:

That evening I enjoyed a very nice dinner at the restaurant in the Studebaker Mansion. Do not recall if it was called the Tippecanoe Place. Lovely old mansion. A nice memory.

(o{}o)

an addition to the weekend festivities:

Subject: Avanti House News Letter

The Indiana chapter AOAI, Michiana SDC and AOAI Pres. Dale Sexton are gathering in the memory of Mike Kelly at the Avanti House on October 19, 2914. The street will be blocked to regular traffic. Plans are to have as many Avantis as possible parked in front of the Avanti House and SNM starting at 7:30 for coffee and tours of the Avanti House until noon. Photos 8:40 to 9:40.
9:30 Brunch at Tippecanoe Place ($19.00+ T&T).
Celebration of the life of Michael E. Kelly with the Kelly family at 12:30.

I am also considering this my official Avanti Open House.

The SN Museum will be offering 1/2 price admission and 20% off in the gift shop. They open at noon.
Don Lindner
Avanti (mini) Museum and Guest House,
818 Thomas Street, S. Bend, IN 46601-2537

Sounds like you will have a great time. The 19th is also the open house at the Packard Proving Grounds in Utica, which is where I plan to be.