GM Fleetwood Body (Detroit, Michigan)

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The first sections of the Fleetwood plant were built in 1916-1917 under a government contract to produce aircraft. The plant made the Italian Caproni bomber, the J-1 Trainer and the British DeHaviland fighter. It remained an aircraft factory until December, 1918 when Fisher Body Co. bought the property from the government.

The oldest buildings in the complex included three single story buildings constructed during 1917-1919 along West End Avenue. Building No. 6, a six story reinforced concrete structure 100 ft. by 979 ft., was erected in 1922 along West Fort Street. The plant produced bodies for Ford, Dodge, and Chrysler-Maxwell prior to 1926, when Fisher Body became a subsidiary of General Motors.

LaSalle bodies were made here from 1926 to 1940 when the plant was converted to produce tank and aircraft parts during WW II. After the war the plant was devoted to making bodies for Cadillac producing about 200,000 bodies a year. The plant became known as the Fleetwood plant in 1931 after General Motors purchased the Fleetwood Custom Body Co. of Fleetwood, Pennsylvania and moved it to this facility.

In 1987, the plant closed following the construction of the new Cadillac plant in nearby Poletown. At the time it was closed it employed 3,000 workers. The buildings, except 7831 West Fort Street, were demolished in 1993