Packard Plant Alive With Interest, But Not For Its Auto History

"Of all the derelict buildings filling the city of Detroit, one of the most famous is the former Packard automobile plant. As much as the city of Detroit would like to do something about the the 3,500,000-square-foot facility, nobody seems quite sure who owns the dilapidated building... nor is there any consensus on who should foot the bill for the massive clean-up project. Recently, though, the old Packard plant became just a little bit more valuable, leading to a skirmish between an assortment of interested parties.

British-born and highly-secretive street artist Banksy recently descended on the decrepit Packard plant, leaving his mark behind in the form of an image of a young boy holding a can of red paint. Beside the boy are the words "I remember when all this was trees." It seems that Banksy's handiwork has a rather high value attached to it. In fact, Angelina Jolie is said to have paid half a million dollars for a few pieces of the UK artist's previous paintings, and this latest piece is said to be valued at over $100,000. But in this instance, there are questions as to who, if anyone, owns Banksy's work."

Read the full article here.

A Moment of Silence for Studebaker

Please take a moment today to recall that the very last Studebaker was built on this date in 1966, in Hamilton, Ontario. This was the sad end of a long and proud line of great American cars. Fortunately, there are many people keeping the Studebaker name alive; click here for the Studebaker Drivers Club.

Now There Are Four - Time Magazine - Studebaker

An interesting article about the demise of US Studebaker manufacturing from 1963.

"Studebaker Corp. announced that it was dropping auto production in the U.S.—111 years after its founding as a carriage maker and 61 since it turned out its first auto."

"What happened to Studebaker? South Bend was too remote from Detroit to enable the company to move quickly with all the industry's new trends, and Studebaker's ancient plant there was hopelessly inefficient. The company's dealer organization was too small, haphazard and ineffectual. Efforts to revitalize the company were snarled by lack of cash and a series of incredible production snafus."

"Studebaker may be largely out of autos, but it is by no means out of business. Under Egbert's direction, Studebaker picked up so many new companies (appliances, chemicals, superchargers) that half of its $400 million sales this year came from nonautomotive divisions. These divisions earned $12 million—though the company will end the year heavily in the red because of auto losses and the cost of closing the South Bend plant. Freed from its auto losses and armed with a healthy tax write-off, Studebaker says that it expects to make an overall profit next year."

Read the complete Time Magazine article from 1963 here.