In Detroit, Michigan, the American Motors Corporation Headquarters used to be a factory. The AMC complex wasn’t always abandoned, destroyed, and silent. The new buildings, which featured offices, a three-story factory, and a power plant, were designed by Amedeo Leoni.
Given that American Motors as a firm no longer exists, you might be shocked to hear that its former offices are still intact. In fact, the American Motors Corporation building in Detroit was still in use up until 2009, when Chrysler (which had acquired AMC in 1987) relocated the last 900 employees to offices in the Detroit suburb of Auburn Hills.
History of AMC Headquarters in Detroit
The Kelvinator Corporation, an appliance manufacturer, was the forerunner to the American Motor Corporation (AMC). Nathanial Wales established the business in 1916, producing refrigerators and other home equipment. In 1925, they introduced the first refrigerator. A new plant and headquarters complex was built on Plymouth Road in 1927 as the company’s activities expanded.
The Amedeo Leoni-designed facility had a front office building, a three-story factory, and a back power plant. A message was written over the main entrance. After another ten years of expansion, the business combined with car manufacturer Nash Motors to form Nash-Kelvinator.Lord Kelvin, the company’s namesake, is quoted as saying, “I’ve thought of a better way.”
In 1937, Kelvinator and automaker Nash Motors united to become Nash-Kelvinator Corporation. The building complex was expanded to 1.46 million square feet on a 57-acre tract of land in 1940 following the merger. This expansion increased the plant’s total square footage to 1.46 million on 57 acres and allowed for an increase in output during World War II.
The Sikorsky Aircraft Corporation produced helicopters for the Army during the Second World War. Nash-Kelvinator was hired as a contractor to do final assembly work at the Plymouth Road factory when they were unable to meet demand. Although manufacturing was put off until 1944 due to design modifications, 262 helicopters were nonetheless completed at the AMC facility in Detroit.
In order to create the American Motors Corporation, Nash-Kelvinator will combine once more in 1954, this time with Hudson Motors. Following the merger, the Plymouth Road facility concentrated on research and design for AMC’s vehicle manufacture while moving appliance production to other locations.
The Rambler, Ambassador, and Metropolitan models were among the several product lines from the firms AMC had bought that originally caused it some difficulty. However, by 1960, the company was selling 486,000 vehicles annually. The AMX, Javelin, Hornet, and Gremlin were later models. AMC spun off the Kelvinator appliance division in 1968, but the business remained its offices on Plymouth until 1973, when it announced it would be relocating to a new structure in Southfield, a Detroit suburb.
Other automakers started to depart Detroit at the same time AMC did. Coleman Young, the mayor of Detroit, was so irate that he had advised locals to stop purchasing AMC cars.
After the relocation was finished in 1975, AMC’s engineering operations were moved to the Plymouth Road complex, which served as their headquarters until Chrysler acquired them in 1987, mostly for the Jeep brand of trucks and SUVs.
The acquisition resulted from the enormously successful Jeep line produced by AMC.Over 3,000 people were employed by the Plymouth Road complex, which became the Jeep and Truck Engineering Center, in its offices and manufacturing facility. It witnessed the creation of concepts for the Jeep Grand Cherokee and the Dodge Ram pickup truck.
In the 1990s, Borman Food Stores leased a sizable portion of the American Motors Headquarters building that was no longer in use. Over the years, there have been several office renovations, as well as the construction of new cafeteria and fitness center facilities.
As the building approached its 70th birthday in 1996, Chrysler had plans to relocate many of its personnel to a brand-new research and design facility in Auburn Hills. Chrysler filed for bankruptcy in 2007, just as the world economy started to contract. Many of its older facilities were liquidated as part of the reform of its operations.
Following Chrysler’s bankruptcy, the final workers were relocated from the AMC building in Detroit on June 5th, 2009. The old American Motors Headquarters building was placed up for sale after they left. It was sold for $2.3 million in 2010.
Terry Williams, a businessman, finally acquired the AMC building in Detroit. He then declared his intention to turn the old factory into a facility for the treatment of children with autism. Williams, however, broke the Clean Air Act in 2012 when, after knocking down the whole 1940s expansion, he carted tons of scrap metal from the American Motors Headquarters building.
The complex was taken over by the courts for unpaid property taxes after Williams was sent back to jail in July 2013 and has since been abandoned. The AMC building in Detroit has been idle since 2013, becoming a hub for criminal activities and turning into an eyesore. The abandoned American Motors Building on Plymouth Road will be destroyed, it was reported on December 9, 2021.
Photos of American Motors Headquarters Building
