Yesterday, General Motors opened the restored Durant-Dort Factory One, which is considered to be the company’s birthplace and the epicenter of the global auto industry.
This historic building was once home to the Flint Road Cart Co. that was established by William Durant and his business partner Josiah Dallas Dort. In 1886 Dort partnered with Durant in the Durant-Dort Carriage Company and he invested $1000.00 into their venture. Dort was also known as “The First Citizen of Flint”.
“Factory One sparked the global auto industry and was a catalyst in the formation of General Motors,” said Mark Reuss, GM executive vice president of Global Product Development, Purchasing and Supply Chain, who championed the project. “It preserves the stories of the early visionaries who built a brand-new industry in this city, within the very walls of where it happened.”
The restoration preserves a significant aspect of the shared heritage of GM and Flint, while creating a community space to help spur economic development in the city. Factory One’s archive is free to use and contains about 100,000 historical documents, photos and other artifacts related to carriage-building and early automobile manufacturing in the Flint area, as well as GM history. Factory One will be available to the public and will be available for rent to companies, the community and other educational events.
Rare, vintage carriages and automobiles with Flint roots also will be displayed at the grand opening of the facility, which includes provisions to host classic auto clubs and events such as the city’s annual Back to the Bricks, which brings visitors from around the world to Flint each August.
“Factory One is part of the very fabric of Flint, and its reopening is as much about the future as it is the past,” said Kevin Kirbitz, Factory One operations manager. “It is a tremendous community asset and academic resource that will educate and inspire generations to come.”
In 1886 Durant and Dort leased this vacant facility to build their horse drawn carriages. The Durant-Dort Carriage Company would become one of the largest carriage builders in the world. By 1908 this venture would evolve into GM, due to Durant’s success with the Buick Motor Company and by 1911 Chevrolet was a reality. The rest is history. GM purchased this architectural piece of history in 2013 and the remodeling began.
Rick Duncan, president of Myclassic News said “It’s amazing to think back on all these automotive entrepreneurs. You have to wonder, without Durant’s business genius and Dort’s $1000.00 to start that horse carriage company, we many never have seen Cadillacs, Chevy Trucks or Corvettes and Camaros. And, these guys didn’t have the internet and the marketing communications we have in this day and time, therefore becoming successful was very difficult. What an awesome building that ended up back in the hands of GM.”
In addition, in 2015, GM donated $2 million to Kettering to create a powertrain laboratory and the GM Foundation donated $2 million for the Kettering University GM Mobility Research Center, which includes a 3.25-acre test pad and outdoor lab space to test and develop driverless car systems.
To learn more about using the archive or hosting an event at Factory One, visit www.gmfactoryone.com or contact factory.one@gm.com.
Photo Credit: All photos herein are the property of GM and were published by MyclassicNEWS with their permission and consent. All content herein, other than property published by permission, is the property of myclassicnews.com and any reproduction, other than normal social media sharing, is strictly prohibited. Copyright ©, myclassicnews.com. For reprint permission contact us at rick@duncanwalls.com
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