Good Bye Janesville

[70 copo]

I tried to get in last year to have a look before it was gone but I was too late as GM had already turned it over to the demolition contractor.

http://www.gazettextra.com/multimedia/galleries/janesville-general-motors-plant-demolition/collection_bc8e1fe3-9e8c-5f4d-a034-529698bead20.html#8

[PeteB]

Janesville Camaros.

[Keith Seymore]

I tried to get in last year to have a look before it was gone but I was too late as GM had already turned it over to the demolition contractor.

http://www.gazettextra.com/multimedia/galleries/janesville-general-motors-plant-demolition/collection_bc8e1fe3-9e8c-5f4d-a034-529698bead20.html#8

That's a trend around here as well.

These buildings used to stand vacant for years and years....decades, in fact. The GM truck administration building on South Blvd; the Truck Validation Center, the ancillary buildings at the PMD headquarters, etc.

Lately they have been knocking them down just about as quickly as they can. I'm not sure if the motivation is based on the cost of security at the facilities, or if they are trying to beat the (illegal) scrappers to the punch, or what.

I actually missed my turn in Pontiac the other day because some of the familiar landmarks were gone.

K

[69 Post Sedan]

I believe they will be selling bricks from the building.

I did an inspection on the fire sprinkler system there a year and a half or so ago.....it was pretty gutted. They barely had heat in it in the winter and kept most of the lights off......dark and cold. They (security) didn’t allow us to take pictures at that time.

There were a bunch of recent pictures floating around on Facebook a few months ago. The facility was pretty run down.

Kurt

[Tarrytown SS427s]

I stopped by to take a few pictures from outside the fence in 2015 when the plant was still mothballed. Sad to see another B body assembly plant disappear. Janesville was the highest volume Chevrolet B body plant in the 1960s, and many L72 orders were built here. The North Tarrytown NY grounds are finally being developed after sitting empty for twenty years. I wonder how long it will take to build on the Janesville site.

[Kurt S]

I went through the Willow Run plant when they had an auction a few years ago. You could figure out where you were in the original bomber plant pictures. Longest plant I've ever been in - one mile.....
Leveled now and part of the autonomous vehicle testing site , but the Yankee Air Museum was able to buy the end of the plant. Still has the doors that exit out to the runway....

[69 Post Sedan]

Here are the pictures of the Janesville plant from last winter that we’re on Facebook.

Kurt

[69 Post Sedan]

Last ones....

[chevyandpontiac]

Hey was that Boomers bike above the kitchen???? LOL

[69 Post Sedan]

........I think it was.......lmao

[Keith Seymore]

I believe they will be selling bricks from the building.



I was driving past the old Pontiac Michigan facility one year around Woodward Dream cruise timeframe.

There was a couple stopped near the fence and they were loading something into the front of a Fiero. (I thought it was hot dogs or something at first).

They were loading the loose bricks from the old final assembly plant, as many as they could reach through the fence.

K

[70 copo]

I have an interior demolition video from Norwood showing the detail there during the tear down. Its disconcerting to see active heavy equipment inside the building just smashing and destroying things that could have salvage value.

[Keith Seymore]

Your thread reminded me of my old friend Owen Snyder, who was the plant planning coordinator at the Janesville plant when I used to visit there.

He was a neat guy. He raced sprint cars and was quite successful, to the point that GM asked him to stop racing (because they thought it was too risky).

Rather than stop he continued to race under an assumed name: "Roy Brown". He showed me newspaper clippings that said "BROWN BEATS SNYDER'S RECORD" and "WHO IS THIS MYSTERIOUS ROY BROWN?".

I was not successful Facebook stalking him to see how he was doing but I did find a picture of him sitting in an Offy powered sprint.

His son, also named Owen, was the crew chief for Al Unser Jr's Indy car efforts.

K