The Ford Motor Company Assembly Plant at 699

Ponce de Leon Avenue Ponce de Leon Avenue ( ), often simply called Ponce, provides a link between Atlanta, Decatur, Clarkston, and Stone Mountain, Georgia. It was named for Ponce de Leon Springs, in turn from explorer Juan Ponce de León, but is not pronounced ...

in the Poncey-Highland neighborhood of

Atlanta, Georgia Atlanta ( ) is the capital and most populous city of the U.S. state of Georgia. It is the seat of Fulton County, the most populous county in Georgia, but its territory falls in both Fulton and DeKalb counties. With a population of 498,7 ...

was the headquarters of the

Ford Motor Company Ford Motor Company (commonly known as Ford) is an American multinational automobile manufacturer headquartered in Dearborn, Michigan, United States. It was founded by Henry Ford and incorporated on June 16, 1903. The company sells automobi ...

southeastern US The Southeastern United States, also referred to as the American Southeast or simply the Southeast, is a geographical region of the United States. It is located broadly on the eastern portion of the southern United States and the southern por ...

operations from 1915 to 1942. As a result of good sales in Atlanta, and a desire to decentralize production, Ford established a combined assembly, sales, service and administration facility on Ponce de Leon Avenue, selling a peak of 22,000 vehicles per year. The assembly plant produced

Model T The Ford Model T is an automobile that was produced by Ford Motor Company from October 1, 1908, to May 26, 1927. It is generally regarded as the first affordable automobile, which made car travel available to middle-class Americans. The relati ...

s, Model As and V-8s until 1942, when the plant was sold to the

War Department War Department may refer to: * War Department (United Kingdom) * United States Department of War (1789–1947) See also * War Office, a former department of the British Government * Ministry of defence * Ministry of War * Ministry of Defence * D ...

and a new plant was opened in the Atlanta suburb of

Hapeville Hapeville is a city in Fulton County, Georgia, United States, that is 2.5 square miles wide. Hapeville is located inside I-285 between the city of Atlanta to its North and the Atlanta International Airport to its south. The population was 6,553 ...

. The building was designed by Ford's in-house architect, John Graham. An office block in the front was backed by a multi-story loft-style

assembly plant A factory, manufacturing plant or a production plant is an industrial facility, often a complex consisting of several buildings filled with machinery, where workers manufacture items or operate machines which process each item into another. T ...

. The War Department used the building as a storage depot and as administrative offices. Sold for development in 1979, the building is now known as Ford Factory Square or the Ford Factory Lofts and is occupied by apartments and retail shops. Architects for the

adaptive reuse Adaptive reuse refers to the process of reusing an existing building for a purpose other than which it was originally built or designed for. It is also known as recycling and conversion. Adaptive reuse is an effective strategy for optimizing the o ...

project were Bradfield Associates. The Kroger supermarket at the Ford Factory is inspiration for the meme

Murder Kroger Murder Kroger is the name by which the Kroger supermarket at 725 Ponce de Leon Avenue in Poncey-Highland, Atlanta has been known for decades. The store opened in the 1980s. The store's parking lot has been the scene of two fatal shootings and th ...

Photo gallery

Image:Ford Factory Atlanta 1914.jpeg, Ford Factory under construction 1914 Image:Ford Atlanta 2.jpg, Front and side view of the Ford Assembly Plant from

Image:Ford Atlanta 3.jpg, Back and side view of the plant Image:Ford Atlanta 4.jpg, Close-up view of the back of the plant;

Ponce City Market Ponce City Market is a mixed-use development located in a former Sears catalogue facility in Atlanta, with national and local retail anchors, restaurants, a food hall, boutiques and offices, and residential units. It is located adjacent to th ...

(formerly the Sears building, then City Hall East) in background Image: Ford Assembly Plant and Sears Building.jpg, Side view of plant entrance fronting

; Sears building (with tower) in background File:Ford Factory Lofts Atlanta.JPG, East side of Ford Factory Lofts seen from the

BeltLine The Atlanta BeltLine (also Beltline or Belt Line) is a open and planned loop of multi-use trail and light rail transit system on a former railway corridor around the core of Atlanta, Georgia. The Atlanta BeltLine is designed to reconnect nei ...

trail, 2012

References

External links

"Field Trip to Murder Kroger", The Plug
{{Ford factories Ford factories Buildings and structures in Atlanta Former motor vehicle assembly plants Motor vehicle assembly plants in Georgia (U.S. state) Industrial landmarks in Atlanta Industrial buildings completed in 1914 Industrial buildings and structures on the National Register of Historic Places in Georgia (U.S. state) Motor vehicle manufacturing plants on the National Register of Historic Places National Register of Historic Places in Atlanta Transportation buildings and structures on the National Register of Historic Places in Georgia (U.S. state)