Michigan Peninsular Car (Detroit, Michigan)

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In 1879, Frank J. Hecker and Charles Freer established the Peninsular Car Company to manufacture wooden bodied railway cars. Starting in 1880, with a small works on the Detroit River between Walker Street and Adair Street, the company acquired land at East Ferry Avenue and Russell Street in 1884 and commenced with the erection of a large plant next to the Detroit & Milwaukee Railroad. By 1889, production had reached 8,200 cars. The following year the enterprise employed 1,359 workers and included a wheel foundry and a soft casting foundry.
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Competition and turbulent economic times, lead to a series of consolidations. The first of these took place in 1892 and involved the Michigan firms of the Michigan Car Company, Michigan Forge & Iron Co. and Detroit Pipe and Foundry Co which were merged together to form the Michigan Peninsular Car Company. Nine years later in 1899, the Michigan Peninsular Car Company became part of the nation wide American Car & Forge Company which consolidated 13 independent firms.

Additional facilities were added over time to produce steel bodies when demand for wooden bodies faded after the turn of the century. During World War I, the factory produced munitions and during the late 1920s made motor buses.