Ford Model T Plant May Be Restored

Known as the Ford Highland Park plant, the place where the automobile as we know it has become the focus of the Woodward Avenue Action Association, who set out to list the plant in the This Place Matters competition, an endeavor set up to help preserve the places with cultural or historical significance.

The goal of the association is to raise enough money to bring back the old glory of the plant by restoring the interior so that tours could be hosted. The administrative building on Woodward is planned to be transformed into a visitor's center so that Detroit could benefit from the flood and tourists and the automotive icon be preserved at the same time.

The get things going, the National Trust for Historic Preservation set up a $25,000 grant for the project, which can be voted at the following link.

"The first thing people want to do when they visit an area is figure out 'Where do I go and when do I go there,' " Deborah Schutt of the Woodward Avenue Action Association was quoted as saying by Freep.

"We'd have hosts, brochures and movies about the area. The Henry Ford (museum) is interested in bringing some exhibits for a mini-museum. Companies could rotate exhibits about their heritage and innovations they're working on now.”

The Highland Park plant opened its doors on the first day of 1910 and became the largest automotive factory in the world. It ended up employing 36,000 people from 63 countries and created the first affordable automobile known as the Model T, which rolled off the world's first assembly line for cars. It became a National Historic Landmark in 1978.