Milwaukee Junction is an area in

Detroit Detroit ( , ; , ) is the largest city in the U.S. state of Michigan. It is also the largest U.S. city on the United States–Canada border, and the seat of government of Wayne County. The City of Detroit had a population of 639,111 at th ...

Michigan Michigan () is a state in the Great Lakes region of the upper Midwestern United States. With a population of nearly 10.12 million and an area of nearly , Michigan is the 10th-largest state by population, the 11th-largest by area, and the ...

, east of New Center. Located near the railroad junction of the Grand Trunk Western Railroad's predecessors

Detroit, Grand Haven and Milwaukee Railway The Detroit, Grand Haven and Milwaukee Railway is a defunct railroad which operated in the US state of Michigan during the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Itself the product of several consolidations in the 1870s, it became part of the Grand Tr ...

and the Chicago, Detroit and Canada Grand Trunk Junction, the area encompasses the streets of East Grand Boulevard to the north, St. Aubin St./Hamtramck Drive to the east, John R Street to the west, and the border following I-94 to the south. Due to the presence of numerous car companies within it at the turn of the 20th century, Milwaukee Junction is considered the "cradle of the Detroit auto industry".

History

The Milwaukee Junction neighborhood was constructed in the 1890s to encourage industrial expansion in what was then the far northern section of Detroit.Eric J. Hill, John Gallagher, and the American Institute of Architects Detroit Chapter
''AIA Detroit: The American Institute of Architects Guide to Detroit Architecture,'' Wayne State University Press, Detroit, 2002, . pp. 168-169. The area was originally a producer of wooden horse carriages, but it soon became a hub of early auto body manufacturing, providing steel frames for the fledgling auto manufacturers. Fisher Auto Body, having a significant presence here, with both Plant 21 and Plant 23 on Piquette Street alone,Fisher Body Plant Number 21
from Detroit1701.org originally produced wooden horse carriages and was one of the early companies to supply steel auto bodies. Other auto parts companies opened in this area not only because of its many auto company manufacturers, but also because of the confluence of the two major railroad lines, making it efficient to ship cars and parts throughout the US. Auto manufacturers who moved into the area included

Anderson Electric Car Company Anderson or Andersson may refer to: Companies * Anderson (Carriage), a company that manufactured automobiles from 1907 to 1910 * Anderson Electric, an early 20th-century electric car * Anderson Greenwood, an industrial manufacturer * Anderson R ...

Brush Motor Car Company Brush Motor Car Company (1907-1909), later the Brush Runabout Company (1909-1913), was based in Highland Park, Michigan. History The company was founded by Alanson Partridge Brush (February 10, 1878, Michigan – March 6, 1952, Michigan). He ...

Cadillac The Cadillac Motor Car Division () is a division of the American automobile manufacturer General Motors (GM) that designs and builds luxury vehicles. Its major markets are the United States, Canada, and China. Cadillac models are distributed i ...

Dodge Dodge is an American brand of automobiles and a division of Stellantis, based in Auburn Hills, Michigan. Dodge vehicles have historically included performance cars, and for much of its existence Dodge was Chrysler's mid-priced brand above P ...

, Everitt-Metzger-Flanders (E-M-F), Hupp,

Packard Packard or Packard Motor Car Company was an American luxury automobile company located in Detroit, Michigan. The first Packard automobiles were produced in 1899, and the last Packards were built in South Bend, Indiana in 1958. One of the "Thr ...

Oakland Oakland is the largest city and the county seat of Alameda County, California, United States. A major West Coast port, Oakland is the largest city in the East Bay region of the San Francisco Bay Area, the third largest city overall in the Bay A ...

Studebaker Studebaker was an American wagon and automobile manufacturer based in South Bend, Indiana, with a building at 1600 Broadway, Times Square, Midtown Manhattan, New York City. Founded in 1852 and incorporated in 1868 as the Studebaker Brothers M ...

, and Regal.Milwaukee Junction
from the Piquette Plant

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 ...

also established a presence in Milwaukee Junction when it opened the Piquette Avenue Plant. This was the factory where the

Ford 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 ...

was first built before being mass-produced in neighboring Highland Park at the

Highland Park Ford Plant The Highland Park Ford Plant is a former Ford Motor Company factory located at 91 Manchester Avenue (at Woodward Avenue) in Highland Park, Michigan. It was the second American production facility for the Model T automobile and the first facto ...

.Development of the Model T
from the Piquette Plant Henry Ford also conducted experiments in assembly line production at the Piquette Avenue Plant, which was used later in Highland Park. Earlier models of the Ford line were also conceived and produced there, including the

Ford Model N The Ford Model N is an automobile produced by Ford Motor Company; it was introduced in 1906 as a successor to the Models A and C as the company's inexpensive, entry-level line. It was built at the Ford Piquette Avenue Plant. The Model N dive ...

. The dominance of Milwaukee Junction in the auto industry lasted until the 1920s. It is now considered the "cradle of the Detroit auto industry". The attraction of this railroad junction continues into even modern times, with

building the Poletown Plant adjacent to the junction in the early 1980s. It is almost on the site of the original 1908

Cadillac Motor Car Assembly Plant The Cadillac Motor Car Division () is a division (business), division of the American automobile manufacturer General Motors (GM) that designs and builds luxury vehicles. Its major markets are the United States, Canada, and China. Cadillac mode ...

assembly plant, and less than 5 miles away from the "Cadillac Main"

Detroit Assembly Detroit Assembly (also known as Detroit Cadillac, Cadillac Assembly or Clark Street Assembly) was a General Motors automobile factory in Detroit, Michigan on Clark Street, south of Michigan Avenue ( U.S. Route 12). It began operations in 1921 and ...

built in 1920 within the "V" of another railroad junction (at Junction Street) on the same

Grand Trunk Western The Grand Trunk Western Railroad Company is an American subsidiary of the Canadian National Railway operating in Michigan, Illinois, Indiana, and Ohio. Since a corporate restructuring in 1971, the railroad has been under CN's subsidiary holdi ...

line.

Current service

The junction is still heavily used by freight and passenger rail today. Three lines of the

Grand Trunk Western Railroad The Grand Trunk Western Railroad Company is an American subsidiary of the Canadian National Railway operating in Michigan, Illinois, Indiana, and Ohio. Since a corporate restructuring in 1971, the railroad has been under CN's subsidiary holding ...

, a US subsidiary of the

Canadian National Railway The Canadian National Railway Company (french: Compagnie des chemins de fer nationaux du Canada) is a Canadian Class I freight railway headquartered in Montreal, Quebec, which serves Canada and the Midwestern and Southern United States. CN i ...

, meet at the junction: The Shore Line Subdivision coming in from the southwest, the Holly Subdivision from the northwest, and the Mt. Clemens Subdivision from the northeast. The Detroit Connecting Railroad comes in from the south and interchanges with the GTW's Shore Line and Mt. Clemens subdivisions. The

Conrail Conrail , formally the Consolidated Rail Corporation, was the primary Class I railroad in the Northeastern United States between 1976 and 1999. The trade name Conrail is a portmanteau based on the company's legal name. It continues to do busin ...

North Yard Branch, shared by

CSX Transportation CSX Transportation , known colloquially as simply CSX, is a Class I freight railroad operating in the Eastern United States and the Canadian provinces of Ontario and Quebec. The railroad operates approximately 21,000 route miles () of track. ...

and the

Norfolk Southern Railway The Norfolk Southern Railway is a Class I freight railroad in the United States formed in 1982 with the merger of Norfolk and Western Railway and Southern Railway. With headquarters in Atlanta, the company operates 19,420 route miles (31 ...

, also crosses the site coming in from the southwest paralleling GTW's Shoreline and Mt. Clemens subdivisions, but does not interchange with any railways in the junction. Trains of

Amtrak The National Railroad Passenger Corporation, Trade name, doing business as Amtrak () , is the national Passenger train, passenger railroad company of the United States. It operates inter-city rail service in 46 of the 48 contiguous United Stat ...

's ''Wolverine'' service pass through the junction six times a day, using the GTW's Shore Line and Holly subdivisions.

References

External links

Friends of Milwaukee Junction - neighborhood association
* {{Detroit Neighborhoods Historic American Engineering Record in Michigan History of Detroit Neighborhoods in Detroit Rail infrastructure in Michigan 1890s establishments in Michigan Former Grand Trunk Western Railroad stations

History

Current service

See also

References

External links