6501 Mack Avenue
Aerocar Company, Hudson Motor Car Company, American Auto Trimming Company, Everitt Bros. Auto Trimming, Hirsch Brothers & Company, Gardner-White Furniture, A&H Bolt & Nut Company
Many of Detroit’s initial manufacturing corridors are shells of their former selves. You could argue that the area that this structure is in would meet that criterion; however, there’s more here than in some areas of Detroit that hold historic designation. One of the most important structures in this district is this one, a building whose origins are invariably tied to one man.
Alexander Y. Malcomson was born in Scotland in 1865. He moved to Detroit in his teens with his father, eventually becoming a successful coal dealer. In the 1890s, Malcomson met Henry Ford when the latter was working at the Detroit Edison Company. After two failed attempts at creating a car company, Ford approached Malcomson about getting involved in his next venture.
The two, in one way or another, rebranded the Henry Ford Company as Ford & Malcomson, with the former building the cars and the latter funding and finding investors for the project. Both men owned just over a quarter of the company, and other various investors, namely James J. Couzens and Horace Rackham, were involved, too.
Despite being heavily involved with Ford, Malcomson founded the Aerocar Company to build luxury cars. This put a stake in between Malcomson and the other investors, including Ford, and he ended up selling his stake in the company in 1906, the same year that he founded Aerocar, for $175,000, or over $6,000,000 today.
The structure pictured here, 6501 Mack Avenue, was built to house the company. It was designed by Malcomson & Higginbotham and ran adjacent to the Michigan Central Rail Road’s Belt Line.
Despite his big payout and new, handsome structure, Aerocar wasn’t a success; the company went belly up by 1908.
In 1909, the Hudson Motor Car Company purchased the structure from Malcomson and started producing cars here. Despite sharing his name, Joseph L. Hudson of the Hudson Department Store was only affiliated as an investor rather than a founder. This was the company’s second home; however, they wouldn’t stay here long. Before leaving, they pulled a permit worth $800 to build a one-story storage shed on the property.
In 1910, Hudson Motors hired Albert Kahn to construct a new factory for the company at Jefferson and Connor. They’d continue operations there until a merger with Nash-Kelvinator in 1954 formed the American Motors Corporation. Their large-scale factory on Jefferson would be demolished by the early 1960s. Back on Mack Avenue, their former home was still operational and standing.
By 1911. the American Auto Trimming Company was operating here. On November 21, 1912, the company’s workers went on strike, demanding better wages. This triggered other strikes in the area, causing production to slow. The Detroit Free Press wasn’t worried about it affecting the auto industry as a whole, but Hugh Chalmers of the Chalmers Motor Company said that it might if it were to last more than three weeks.
I’m not sure what happened with the strike. The company eventually moved to Meldrum Street, vacating the structure here to make way for another automobile trimming company: Everitt Bros.
Everitt operated from this structure until at least 1919, eventually merging with the Trippensee Manufacturing Company to form a larger trimming company that would go under by the 1920s.
In 1927, there was an advert for the Hirsch Brothers & Company here, and in 1928, there was a wanted ad looking for upholsterers for living room furniture without a company name.
By the late 1920s, I think the structure was starting to be pieced out and used by multiple businesses. In 1928, 14,000 square feet were available, with heat and furnishings. For $600 a month, the parcel was yours.
By 1947, Gardner-White Furniture utilized a portion (or all) of the structure as a warehouse. Additionally, they had a warehouse location on Gratiot Avenue. During their time inside the structure, there were adverts for the Television Service Engineers (a Philco dealer) and the Mastercraft Radio and Television Service. After the late 1940s, this structure stayed out of the news.
Popping back into the limelight again in 1986, the structure was being utilized as the A&H Bolt & Nut Company by that point. In 1987, a company here was looking for a marketing consultant to expand their business. The organization was in the industrial fastener and construction and automotive aftermarket industry. To expand the company for 40 hours a week, you’d get paid $20,000 a year, which is roughly $55,000 annually today.
After that, I’ve found nothing on record of what this space might have been. Most of the former manufacturing facilities in the area are vacant or underutilized, including use for pallet storage. This one has been abandoned for quite some time.
The structure is currently listed under the ownership of an LLC out of Grosse Pointe Farms. The person in charge of that LLC lists that they own Rex Metal Recycling, a scrap yard.
Structures like this one are a fascinating look into how much the process of making things has changed in a century. These small factories were built inside communities, whereas modern facilities are built in isolation, creating their own company-controlled communities in the process.
Hopefully, this structure will see stabilization work in the near future. It should receive a historic designation, as it’s an iconic piece of Detroit’s history with ties to the early era of the automobile in the Motor City, the founding of the Ford Motor Company, and because Hudson Motors called it home.
If you noticed, there are for sale signs on this structure. It’s listed at $1,075,000 with Christopher Monsour. That price isn’t farfetched considering the square footage, but a lack of interior photos makes me think the condition isn’t good. That said, Monsour is notorious for taking any listing that falls into his lap, listing it for a high price, and doing no work to showcase the property other than throwing one of his signs up.
Seriously, this place deserves a historic designation! Or, at the least, someone to take better care of it.
