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Automotive Traveler Magazine: Vol 3 Iss 3 Page 70

presence of a bygone age. I had to pinch myself, as I knew I had entered hallowed ground.

You see, I had not expected the place to be much more than just another old brick building packed with vintage cars.

Yet when I entered the Ford Piquette Plant from a secured rear parking lot, even the original wooden stairs beneath my feet seemed to come alive. As they creaked and groaned, I swear I could hear the footsteps of America's automotive pioneers.

Henry Ford, John and Horace Dodge, Harvey Firestone, Earl and George Holley, William Durant, and Walter Flanders all trod these floors. Mr. Ford's gossamer ingenuity was so palpable I wondered if perhaps he is a ghost.

For it was here, in 1903, that Henry Ford began his third attempt at automobile production, his first Ford Motor Co. factory.

Workers assembled the early models by moving from station to station around the second-floor room. Completed vehicles were taken down by elevator and test driven on surrounding streets, before they were parked in the courtyard for mechanics to fine-tune the engines.

After the vehicles passed final inspection, Ford's people drove them to the shipping room at the rear of the building. There they were cleaned and tagged, then placed on the railroad freight platform to await shipment.

The Ford Motor Co. outsourced all parts for the first several years. The Dodge brothers, original shareholders in the company, supplied engines and transmissions. Earl and George Holley

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