Members and friends have gathered for over a quarter-century to spend an enjoyable fall evening at a significant historic venue and raise funds for the MHPN. Most often we are in wonderful Detroit buildings such as the Fisher or Masonic Temple. Other years, we leave the Detroit area to see venues such as the Grand Trunk Western Railroad Depot in Durand or Tibbits Opera House in Coldwater. Although we held the MHPN’s 32nd Annual Statewide Preservation Conference in Flint in 2012, we have not hosted a Fall Benefit in the city. Now’s the time!

Factory One embodies the stories of innovators who revolutionized personal transportation. Located just north of downtown Flint, the two-story, red brick factory dates from c.1880 when it was built by the Flint Woolen Mills Company for textile production. In 1886, William Crapo “Billy” Durant and business partner Josiah Dallas Dort leased the facility and formed the Flint Road Cart Company. Their enterprise became the Durant-Dort Carriage Factory, one of the largest carriage builders in the world.

Durant would eventually take control of another Flint business – Buick Motor Co. – and leverage his Durant-Dort resources to grow the new enterprise into one of the most successful automobile makers in the country. Durant used Buick’s success to begin building General Motors in 1908. By 1917, carriage production had ended at Factory One. The building and others in the complex were converted to manufacturing automobiles until 1924.

During the more than 130 years since Durant and Dort set up shop at Factory One, it housed countless other businesses in what remained a residential neighborhood, today recognized on the National Register of Historic Places as the Carriage Town Historic District. In 2013, General Motors purchased Factory One and began a three-year restoration and renovation of the 30,184-square-foot building. SmithGroupJJR was selected for its extensive experience in preservation and modern archive design. A cornerstone of the global auto industry had thus been preserved while creating a modern meeting, archive, research, and exhibition space for GM and its community.