Sorry, caught the horrible flu and wasn't doing any scanning work. So, pictures. This is a poster that hung in the Verlinden Street Fisher Body Plant during early World War 2. It's under archival sheeting that causes slight reflections. They (I have different one from 1944) are 31 x 40 inches, so quite large.
Those are some pretty nice signs. I'd always wanted to know more about what the Lansing area plants were building during the war, do you have any idea?
I just wanted to add another good Lansing history book to pick up: Out of a wilderness: An illustrated history of Greater Lansing - Amazon. You can get for about $8 with shipping, I've skimmed it so far and it seems to be more of a true history book rather than just a collection of captioned photos.
I believe they made 75 mm artillery pieces on Verlinden. Here is across the street from the plant before the war, just after The Star Auto factory closed down....The bar is now Harry's, but at the time it was The Star Café. The City Pulse just named it as the oldest bar in Lansing last month.
That is a cool looking thing. I don't believe I have ever seen a water storage tower like this one. I saw this tower in one of the other photos, it shows this tower and a smoke stack that says City on the side. Is the "city" smoke stack the same one that the Lugnut stands on?
When I was young I thought the current Cedar St. building was a mystical place, with the great water bearer relief sculpture that was always lit up at night and the glowing windows that you could not see into. The front doors looked to me like something from the Emerald City. I was also fascinated by the fact that the grassy hill across the street was an undergroundwater storage tank. It seemed like such a beautiful and elegant building came from another time when they cared about grace and beauty, even for a water works.
My Dad worked at the Fisher Body for awhile before being drafted. It seems like the Olds plant made something else beside artillery shells. We had an "ashtray" made out of one of those shells that sat in our phone nook. It weighted about ten pounds and was solid metal. Dad did not talk much about the war years, my Mom was a nurse at Fisher Body before my Dad got drafted and went to the Pacific.
I just "found a cool page" The American Auto Industry in World War Two by google-ing of course. You can click on any company and there are photos and information about the war effort. Lansing made lots of big guns for tanks and PT boats. There are some good photos of factories and what they made.
The John Dye Water plant is a sight to behold inside. The murals and the art deco design in the first basins are stunning! Tile work, aluminum rails, even the lime slakers were designed with style. They didn't stay with the same style inside when it was expanded in the forties, the north basins were just concrete with steel barriers. Give me some time, I have some very interesting pictures of John Dye Water to scan yet.
The 75 mm artillery piece I refer to was the main gun on the early Sherman tanks. It was a smooth bore ( non-rifled); therefore easily manufactured and was replaced in late 1943 with the 75 mm rifled piece which was used on the Comet and the Firefly Sherman. Even in the Korean conflict they made 90 mm artillery pieces at Fisher Body and GM.
REO made a lot of trucks and other vehicles and motors for the war effort. I can remember the Vietnam era trucks lined up outside at Washington Ave and Baker St. It was pointed out on this war effort page that the little building on S. Washington that has the mural on the side is the only surviving REO building. I did notice the sign painted on the transom window above the door that says REO Division of White Motors. There is also some kind of nice cut glass in the window [that has just recently been vandalized, I found broken red glass on the sidewalk]. It was a REO showroom at one time, I think Quality Dairy owns it now, and they could do a little better taking care of it.
Here is a building I am having trouble identifying. It appears to have had it's name on it at one time between the second and third floors. 1902 at the top, I think it was either near River Street, Grand Ave and Kalamazoo Street...or at the end of Ottawa Street on the river. Possibly the old State Journal building?
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I just wanted to add another good Lansing history book to pick up: Out of a wilderness: An illustrated history of Greater Lansing - Amazon. You can get for about $8 with shipping, I've skimmed it so far and it seems to be more of a true history book rather than just a collection of captioned photos.
When I was young I thought the current Cedar St. building was a mystical place, with the great water bearer relief sculpture that was always lit up at night and the glowing windows that you could not see into. The front doors looked to me like something from the Emerald City. I was also fascinated by the fact that the grassy hill across the street was an undergroundwater storage tank. It seemed like such a beautiful and elegant building came from another time when they cared about grace and beauty, even for a water works.
The 75 mm artillery piece I refer to was the main gun on the early Sherman tanks. It was a smooth bore ( non-rifled); therefore easily manufactured and was replaced in late 1943 with the 75 mm rifled piece which was used on the Comet and the Firefly Sherman. Even in the Korean conflict they made 90 mm artillery pieces at Fisher Body and GM.