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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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Well, part of the mystery, the west wing with the test cells, has been solved.

Found two more photos, dated 1942, where the inspection building matches the second photo above. The west wing must have been added after 42.

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Hello... as I have said elsewhere, the part of the plant you refer to here was altered many times, before, during and after the war. So the photos are only valid for so long.

And yes, this building was whacked wayyyyyy back in the 1950s when the Edsel Ford Expressway was cut through and replaced most of Harper Avenue along this area with a concrete ditch occupied by the expressway. An eastbound one-way access road from Mt. Elliot curved around the edge of the building and crossed the expressway via a bridge... then joined what was left of Harper. It is still in this configuration today.

Of course engine production had moved out to the Utica Packard Plant well before this. I am certain that the building was largely empty at the point when it was chopped off. Wisely, whoever oversaw the shortening of the building re-used the same bricks for the outer face... and the same architecture, so the building looked the same pretty much from the ground, except that it shrank from the original size and retreated south.

Shortly after all this happened I believe Stone Container Corporation took over that building and Essex Wire Company moved into the other buildings at the north end of Concord at the Expressway. What used to be a parking lot was made into an access road that basically led from Concord at the expressway westward until it joined with the company street that led through the plant south the Grand Blvd. Essex WIre may have also been in the other building for a short time. I lost track of who came and went over the years.

I also repeat... the Packard Plant and facilities ONCE extended beyond (north of) Harper Avenue. They had buildings here and a small test track.... yessss. Once upon a time.

Anyway, hope this helps...

Packard's Board Meeting minutes record that their foundry which was on Harper Ave was sold during 1954, necessitating their contracting with Lakey Foundry for the casting of the 1955 and 1956 engine blocks, cylinder heads, etc. I never took notice of whether Lakey's casting logo is also on various other castings like transmission parts and the like. I don't know what happened to the foundry buildings.

I don't know what happened to the foundry buildings.

The foundry and forge were in the area marked with a question mark on this 1961 photo.

iirc, the 55 annual report said the foundry was "surplus" when sold. It does not appear that the foundry would have been disrupted significantly by the freeway. Earlier photos show one long narrow building extending from the main foundry to Harper and another shed on Harper, but the main buildings were well back from the freeway right of way.

Reasons why the foundry was "surplus" could include:

-so ancient and decrepit that a major investment would have been required to keep it running.

-oversized, underutilized and inefficent as Packard production levels had fallen well below 6 figures.

-with engine, transmission and axle production moved to Utica, it may not have cost any more to ship the castings from Muskegon than from the old foundry on Harper.

The building marked "G" on the photo is Gemmer Steering Gear, which still stands. iirc "H" is the Hupmobile plant, now replaced by GM Poletown.

Elsewhere, I saw a newspaper clipping that Lakey picked up Packard and Kaiser as customers in the same week in 54, as the Chevy/Ford price war was raging and everyone else's volume fell. Lakey went bankrupt in 72.

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I am certain that the building was largely empty at the point when it was chopped off.

What I was hoping to pin down was what was that building used for between 46 and 55. Was the engine line moved in there post war, or put back where it had been prewar? If not the engine plant, what was in there?

I keep hoping someone with the Winter 2009 issue of "The Cormorant" will see this thread, as that issue is supposed to have a diagram of the plant with each building's use circa 1949 noted. The magazine is sold out, and I have not yet seen it appear on eBay or Amazon.

Steve, my file "keeping" is notorious, but I know I have all my past issues of TPC, I can try scanning it for you (if I can find it!). I enjoy learning about "what happened where" in the Packard facilities, so if this would help further research and understanding, then I'd be happy to help. Send me a PM (private message) to keep reminding me, and/or to give me an email address where I can send the page images directly.

Owen_Dyneto, is this the logo we would look for on our engine blocks? I saw it on a piece of Lakey Foundry letterhead, looks like a centerline mark!

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I wonder of the 1954 sale of the foundry site was prompted by an unwillingness/inability to invest in upgrades needed to produce the V8 block, or by a cut-off from the electricity, steam, and compressed air produced by the Packard power plant <em>(I imagine that the utility tunnel from the Boulevard to the foundry was cut-off by the I-94 dig)</em>, or some combination?

Yes, that's the Lakey casting symbol. Another often-seen foundry mark is "CWC" (Campbell, Wyant & Cannon) who did castings for Reo, Hudsons and others. For those who might have an interest in tracking down casting symbols the U.S. military produced a huge register of foundry marks during WWII and it can be found on-line (http://www.usarmymodels.com/ARTICLES/Foundry%20Symbols%20and%20Trademarks.pdf).

I have The Packard Cormorant issue (No. 137, Winter 2009) at hand and also speak with the author regularly but can't quite identify in the 1949 plant plan the particular building of interest. I can't scan and post here because of copyright issues.

But no reason for this to remain a mystery. Steve, let me suggest you simply call the author of the article, he's quite the accomplished Packard historian and I'm sure he'd be please to speak with you. His contact info is in the PAC Membership Directory.

The building (#22) which is identified as the prior Merlin assembly building has the following acitivites listed for 1949 though I'm uncertain if this is the building in question:

1. Traffic/Car Preparation/Final Repair
2. Personnel/Training/Post Office/Labor Relations/Restaurant
3. Service Parts Staff/Service Engineering/Metallurgy
4. Chassis & Body engineering/Records/Styling

Steve, I've been told all the back issues of Winter 2009 were bought by the Packard Proving Grounds.

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If I am seeing this photo correctly, the area referred to is north of Harper Avenue. There were many things going on in this area over the years. Of course during Packard's operation at East Grand Blvd. the Edsel Ford Expressway certainly was not completed along this area. So whatever was going on with I-94 (I don't think it was even called by that name at the time) was not affecting Packard. In fact, Edsel Ford Expressway at one point only made it as far eastbound as Mt. Elliot and this was at least 1957. Of course, by that late date any consequence with Packard was a non-issue.

By the way, when the East Grand Blvd. plant ceased to function, the power plant was one of the first structures that was torn down and replaced by an A&P supermarket. So if anything affected power and steam supplied by the plant, it was the plant itself being gone.

I-94 construction went very slow for very long. I well remember that the expressway ended eastbound shortly after crossing the John Lodge. After that, It first ended at the street where Farm Crest Bakery building was located. This was due to a huge bridge that had to be constructed over a giant cluster of railroad tracks.

Then it was extended to Mt. Elliot, near the Packard Plant. The ditch they had to dig to get the expressway past EGB was another colossal effort and required shortening of the Packard Plant, whacking of the parking lots, and elimination of much of Harper Avenue.

<i>I never took notice of whether Lakey's casting logo is also on various other castings like transmission parts and the like.</i>

Sorry, forgot about that question last night.

Lakey cast grey iron, which is used for blocks and heads. In grey iron, the graphite in the iron forms flakes which tend to block sound, so a grey iron engine runs quieter than an engine made of other materials.

iirc, the Ultramatic cases by 55 or 56 were aluminum, so would have been produced elsewhere. The gears inside were probably forgings.

Differential carriers, gear cases (which hold the diff gears inside the carrier), U joint yokes, steering knuckles and other parts are usually cast in malleable iron, which is stronger and less brittle than grey iron.

In the summer of 75, I was working in a malleable foundry in Albion, Mi. While searching through some old files, I found drawings for Packard diff carriers dated around 48, so it looks like Packard didn't cast malleable even when the Harper foundry was open.

The foundry mark for Albion Malleable was an A in a circle. It's sister foundry in Tiffin, Ohio used a T in a circle, but Tiffin looked too new to have been operating when Packard was in business. The Albion foundry closed and was torn down about 10 years ago.

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