Nature Vs. Industry (Lorain Assembly Plant)

Remember when I told you that I would not post about Lorain for awhile? I lied, sorry. (Not really. It is my blog and I will do whatever I want. It's not all about you readers. So selfish.)

In 1958 the finishing touches were put on Lorain's third and final form of industrial growth, the Ford Assembly Plant. Actually, come to think of it when the plant was put into service it actually resided in Black River Township for about 6 years until it was annexed by the City of Lorain (for obvious reasons....money).

There aren't many pictures of the Lorain Assembly Plant, mainly because I imagine it isn't necessarily a historical structure, but it did play a big part in the local economy.

14.6 Miles (Google Maps)

Back in its day, the assembly plant built some iconic vehicles, some still being produced today, including the Econoline Van, which was the only vehicle still being produced when the plant closed in 2005.

Here are some generic pictures of the original 3 vehicles produced in 1958.

The Ford F-100 Truck

The Ford Ranchero

The Ford Galaxie

Inside the plant, unknown year.

As I do not feel like landing myself in jail for trespassing, I kept it to a minimum and mostly shot the buildings from the roadway. So now I am going to show you a bunch of current pictures of the plant and how nature is beginning its slow takeover.

Old entrance to the plant. The grassy patch to the right was a parking lot. Now it is overrun.

Whoa, how did that get in here?

They parked the production display vehicles up here. I can only remember the Econoline Vans.

Ramps that led to the display area in the front of the plant.

The old overflow lot. The most run down part of the plant. It was the first  to be abandoned.

Bridge that led to overflow lot. Nature creeping in.

Tracks just to the South. Used in vehicle shipping.

How the vehicles were loaded onto the train. The train cars were backed up to the blue ramps and the vehicles were loaded in there.

Old container cars.

Aerial view of the plant currently. The part in the red used to be part of the plant as well. It is now leveled.

The plant was closed in 2005 with the Econoline Van being the last vehicle off the line. As you can see from the pictures above there are a lot of new Econolines in the lot. These are from the Avon Lake Assembly Plant. They are currently in the process of refitting their plant to build the newly reclaimed F-650's and F-750's from Mexico and they needed a place to store the vehicles. What better of a place then where they were built less than 10 years ago to store them today. It is an eerie sight to behold. As close to time travel as it gets.

In its 47 year lifespan the Lorain Plant made 12 different vehicle models and approximately 7.5 million vehicles total. My Uncle worked at this plant and it is sad to see it gone, but there is some hope. A small group of businesses have taken root in the old plant. I'm not 100% sure what all of the businesses are, but I do know that one is a bottling company and at least one other is into some sort of distributing.

I will finish this post with some photographs I took of the more rural part of my ride in Vermilion/Brownhelm Township. I hope you enjoyed this post. Stay tuned for more.