Woodward Avenue (M-1) - Automotive Heritage Trail
Historic Cadillac Motor Car Company Assembly Plant, MI

This three-story building in a National Register district served as the main assembly plant for Cadillac Motor Car Company until 1920 when it moved to its Clark Street location. It was built in 1905 after the merger of Henry Leland's Cadillac Automobile Company and the Leland & Faulconer Manufacturing Company. Completed in just sixty-seven days, this assembly plant was finished shortly after the Albert Kahn-designed Packard Motor Company Building #10. Both industrial buildings are considered pioneers in the use of reinforced concrete. This was the first automobile plant in Detroit with its own pattern works, iron and brass foundries, and forge and machine shops. Eventually the plant was purchased by a realty company. Westcott Paper Company (formerly a tenant in the building) bought it in 1945; it remains their headquarters to this day.