Black plans meaning just blacking out the buildings as sort of a figure-ground thing.  It also helps compare the scale of things.

 

Since most of the posters here are not from Dayton, here is the location of the plant.

 

 

Things started small.  This says Dayton Wright (airplanes) but the plant was intended for the production of Delco Light farm lighting systems.  This never happened and the empty factory was retooled and added to for military aircraft production.

 

 

 

 

Sanborn of the aircraft plant, which producded observer-bombers for WWI (DeHavilland ..a UK design)

 

 

After aircraft production the plant, or a part of it, was used as a Delco research lab, then substiantially expanded for home appliance production, mostly refrigerators, in 1926.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The plant was unionized in the 1940s by the miltant UE, but the local reaffliated with the IUE after the UE/IUE split.

 

 

 

 

 

 

In 1979 Frigidaire closed, but the buildings were added to and re-equiped for vehicle assembly, Moraine Assembly. 

 

 

 

The high point was around 2000, but also some early removals.

 

 

 

The shutdown begins this Saturday, 20th and will continue to the 23rd, department by department, until the last vehicle rolls off the line on the 23rd.  Closed for good on Dec 24, Christmas Eve.

 

 

 

I think it is as fascinating that it made refrigerators longer than anything else and that it 81 GM would have enough confidence to reuse a facility instead of building in greenfield.

I dont know the details of what happened in 1979-1981, but the union there agreed to givebacks and a two-tier wage/benefits package, so there was a sweetener on the labor front for GM to stay.  Not sure if the state & local govt had some incentives, too.

 

 

I think they made ranges and other appliances there too.  It sounds a bit like GE's Appliance Park in Louisville.

 

 

Dayton-area GM plant sold, 2,000 jobs planned

Business Courier - by Ginger Christ, Dayton Business Journal

Date: Wednesday, July 6, 2011, 3:39pm EDT

 

The former General Motors site in Moraine has been sold to California-based Industrial Realty Group by The RACER Trust.

 

IRG, which plans to redevelop the site into a five-building, multi-use complex called Progress Park, initially hoped to close on the property in April, but the purchase was delayed by paperwork and due diligence.

 

IRG’s plans for the site could bring in as many as 2,000 jobs, according to the company.

 

“The city is delighted the sale is complete. IRG is a well-known company with a strong history of success in redeveloping sites, and we expect they will be equally successful here. We are looking forward to the re-use of this property,” said Moraine city manager Dave Hicks, in a news release.

 

Cont

Anything happening with this?  I just drove by it yesterday for the first time and it is HUGE, yet idle.