Cadillac Coup de Ville
Whenever I see a Cadillac from this era in the city, I assume it’s been in Detroit for its entire life. Maybe it took excursions around the Midwest, but it was assembled here, and, despite sitting in a field with flat tires, it’s still here.
This is a second-generation Cadillac Coup de Ville, which was assembled at the Cadillac Assembly at Clark and Michigan in Southwest Detroit. A titan of Detroit’s manufacturing might, the plant pumped out cars from the 1920s through the late 1980s, when production was scaled back. It was torn down in the late 1990s to make way for the Clark Street Technology Park.
The placement of the factory made sense in the past and could again in the future. Located between a triangle of rail lines, it was easy to bring in parts via freight and ship out assembled cars the same way. If America gets serious about freight trains as a more efficient and environmentally friendly option, this plot of land could again be a promising location for manufacturing.
Bill Mitchell designed the first five generations of the Dacillac de Ville, most of which were produced at the Clark Street Assembly plant. By the 1970s, some had been shifted elsewhere, and after the plant closed, they were primarily built in Lake Orion and at the Poletown Plant.
I like the later version of the Cadillac de Ville, but there’s something special about those fins.
If you could drive any car that was assembled at the Clark Street Plant, which would you choose?
