the bottom link works ok... Welcome to FR.
Great story, very amicable, humble man. Thanks for the post, link worked fine for me.
the bottom link works ok...Why would a building for a company that’s been out of business for decades and still not occupied by another business still be standing? I would have thought if it couldn’t be converted to something else it would have eventually been demolished to save on property taxes.
Sounds like a writer pushing the benefits of poverty and third world living
Boy there’s a sobering thought.
Packard went out of business in the 50’s.
So in fifty some odd years there’s been no demand that would have caused the factory to be put to some other commercial or redevelopment use? Talk about zero growth.
Just think of the industrial powerhouse we were during World War II, and then look at us now. Yikes!
Albert Kahn was born in Germany in 1869. When he was 11, his family moved to the United States and settled in Detroit, where the teenager took a job as an architect’s apprentice. In 1902, after working at a number of well-known architectural firms in Detroit, Kahn started his own practice.
While building factories for Packard, the young architect found that swapping reinforced concrete for wood or masonry sped up the construction of manufacturing plants considerably. It also made them sturdier and less combustible. Moreover, reinforced-concrete buildings needed fewer load-bearing walls; this, in turn, freed up floor space for massive industrial equipment. Kahn’s first concrete factory, Packard Shop No. 10, still stands today on East Grand Boulevard in Detroit.