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Photo, Print, Drawing Kelvinator Corporation Headquarters and Factory, 14250 Plymouth Road, Detroit, Wayne County, MI American Motors Corporation Headquarters and Factory

[ Data Pages from Survey HABS MI-452  ]

More Resources

[ Photo Captions from Survey HABS MI-452  ]

About this Item

Title

  • Kelvinator Corporation Headquarters and Factory, 14250 Plymouth Road, Detroit, Wayne County, MI

Other Title

  • American Motors Corporation Headquarters and Factory

Names

  • Historic American Buildings Survey, creator
  • Kelvinator Corporation
  • Electric Refrigeration Corporation
  • Smith, Hinchman & Grylls
  • SmithGroup
  • Nash-Kelvinator Corporation
  • American Motors Corporation
  • Chrysler
  • Leone, Amedeo
  • Nash Motor Company
  • Hudson Motor Car Company
  • W.E. Wood & Company
  • Miller, Franklin, Bassett and Company
  • Goss, Arnold H.
  • Copeland, Edmund J.
  • Wales, Nathaniel B.
  • Durant, William C.
  • Electro-Automatic Refrigerating Company
  • J. Walter Thompson and Company
  • Grand Rapids Refrigeration Company
  • Detroit Carrier Corporation
  • Grand River Refrigeration Company
  • Nizer Corporation
  • Woodbridge, C. King
  • Wilson, William R.
  • Mason, George W.
  • Thomas, Charles C.
  • U.S. Office of War Mobilization
  • U.S. War Production Board
  • Romney, George
  • Mechanics Educational Society of America (MESA)
  • NorthPoint Development, sponsor
  • Harvey, Bruce G., historian
  • Harvey, Bruce G., photographer
  • McPartland, Mary, transmitter

Created / Published

  • Documentation compiled after 1933

Headings

  • -  manufacturing
  • -  factories
  • -  office buildings
  • -  administration buildings
  • -  refrigerators
  • -  Appliances
  • -  automobile industry
  • -  war (World War II)
  • -  boiler houses
  • -  Michigan--Wayne County--Detroit

Latitude / Longitude

  • 42.373432,-83.184202

Notes

  • -  Significance: The former Kelvinator Corporation Office and Factory is significant for its association with the industrial history of Detroit, and as an example of the work of one of Detroit's oldest and most prominent architectural firms. The two buildings -an administrative building facing Plymouth Road and a factory behind it -were built for the Electric Refrigeration Corporation, a holding company formed when the Kelvinator Corporation acquired two other refrigeration firms. Kelvinator had pioneered the technology and the marketing for self-contained household electric refrigerators, and took the lead among many other refrigeration and household appliance companies in Detroit in the early twentieth century. This industry, moreover, had close and extensive personal relations to the burgeoning automobile industry. The building complex was planned and designed in 1926 by the firm of Smith, Hinchman & Grylls, established in 1855 and continuing currently as SmithGroup. The firm had been prolific throughout the Detroit region for decades when it designed the Kelvinator complex, and with Albert Kahn Associates was one of the city's two leading architectural firms. After its completion in early 1927, the building was headquarters successively to the Kelvinator Corporation, the Nash-Kelvinator Corporation, and American Motors Corporation, all firms with deep ties to Detroit's industrial history. Though abandoned since 2009 and largely stripped of its interior furnishings, the exteriors of both the administrative office and the factory retained a high degree of integrity, and until its demolition in late 2022 the complex remained a distinct focal point on this portion of Plymouth Road on Detroit's west side.
  • -  Survey number: HABS MI-452
  • -  Building/structure dates: 1926-1927 Initial Construction
  • -  Building/structure dates: 1952-1956 Subsequent Work
  • -  Building/structure dates: 1996-2005 Subsequent Work
  • -  Building/structure dates: 2009-2012 Subsequent Work
  • -  Building/structure dates: 2022-2023 Demolished

Medium

  • Photo(s): 27
  • Data Page(s): 52
  • Photo Caption Page(s): 4

Call Number/Physical Location

  • HABS MI-452

Source Collection

  • Historic American Buildings Survey (Library of Congress)

Repository

Control Number

  • mi0773

Rights Advisory

Online Format

  • image
  • pdf

Rights & Access

The Library of Congress does not own rights to material in its collections. Therefore, it does not license or charge permission fees for use of such material and cannot grant or deny permission to publish or otherwise distribute the material.

Ultimately, it is the researcher's obligation to assess copyright or other use restrictions and obtain permission from third parties when necessary before publishing or otherwise distributing materials found in the Library's collections.

For information about reproducing, publishing, and citing material from this collection, as well as access to the original items, see: Historic American Buildings Survey/Historic American Engineering Record/Historic American Landscape Survey (HABS/HAER/HALS) Collection - Rights and Restrictions Information

  • Rights Advisory: No known restrictions on images made by the U.S. Government; images copied from other sources may be restricted. https://www.loc.gov/rr/print/res/114_habs.html
  • Reproduction Number: ---
  • Call Number: HABS MI-452
  • Access Advisory: ---

Obtaining Copies

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Cite This Item

Citations are generated automatically from bibliographic data as a convenience, and may not be complete or accurate.

Chicago citation style:

Historic American Buildings Survey, Creator, Kelvinator Corporation, Electric Refrigeration Corporation, Hinchman & Grylls Smith, Smithgroup, Nash-Kelvinator Corporation, American Motors Corporation, et al., Harvey, Bruce G, photographer. Kelvinator Corporation Headquarters and Factory, 0 Plymouth Road, Detroit, Wayne County, MI. Detroit Wayne County Michigan, 1933. translateds by Mcpartland, Marymitter Documentation Compiled After. Photograph. https://www.loc.gov/item/mi0773/.

APA citation style:

Historic American Buildings Survey, C., Kelvinator Corporation, Electric Refrigeration Corporation, Smith, H. &. G., Smithgroup, Nash-Kelvinator Corporation [...] Harvey, B. G., Harvey, B. G., photographer. (1933) Kelvinator Corporation Headquarters and Factory, 0 Plymouth Road, Detroit, Wayne County, MI. Detroit Wayne County Michigan, 1933. McPartland, M., trans Documentation Compiled After. [Photograph] Retrieved from the Library of Congress, https://www.loc.gov/item/mi0773/.

MLA citation style:

Historic American Buildings Survey, Creator, et al., photographer by Harvey, Bruce G. Kelvinator Corporation Headquarters and Factory, 0 Plymouth Road, Detroit, Wayne County, MI. trans by Mcpartland, Marymitter Documentation Compiled After. Photograph. Retrieved from the Library of Congress, <www.loc.gov/item/mi0773/>.