| Inside the Ford Motor Company Assembly Plant |
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January 29, 2008, 6:50 am
Re: Inside the Ford Motor Company Assembly Plant
It would be a wondrous thing, to see that building renovated and illuminated at night.
Ford once had several dozen of these plants around the country.
January 29, 2008, 8:24 am
Re: Inside the Ford Motor Company Assembly Plant
If you went to an old abandoned place like this in Jersey, you would always get the feeling you were gonna find a body or two......and hey sometimes you would!...it was creepy even looking at these photos.
January 29, 2008, 8:59 am
Re: Inside the Ford Motor Company Assembly Plant
The slab is supported by concrete piers and pile caps. Those are supported by groups of wooden piles.
In other words, there's a crawl space below the slab.
January 29, 2008, 9:02 am
Re: Inside the Ford Motor Company Assembly Plant
There was a lot of light in the place, due to all the windows and skylights it had. I've explored a good number of abandoned buildings and I'd say the Park View Inn was one of the creepiest in Jax.
Inside The Park View Inn: http://www.metrojacksonville.com/content/view/344/117/
January 29, 2008, 9:05 am
Re: Inside the Ford Motor Company Assembly Plant
This would have been awesome for the the farmers market.
January 29, 2008, 9:10 am
Re: Inside the Ford Motor Company Assembly Plant
With all that open space and those great skylights, I'd like to see a commercial only complex that included an open-air market. What's the one in San Franciso? You know, on the bay where it's all open, but when you walk inside there are several little shops and booths kind of like kiosks or something and then some closed off restaurants. That would really be cool...kind of a urban mall of sorts. We could even give it a name like, The Plant, or The Shoppes at F.M. CAP
January 29, 2008, 7:26 pm
Re: Inside the Ford Motor Company Assembly Plant
I agree with Pancake. If done right correctly it would put the Landing to shame.
January 30, 2008, 10:07 pm
Re: Inside the Ford Motor Company Assembly Plant
This looks like it is in Talleyrand...But I can't tell exactly. This is my first time seeing this building. Good work MJ.C
January 30, 2008, 10:24 pm
Re: Inside the Ford Motor Company Assembly Plant
If you want to see the building, cross the Mathews Bridge from Arlington, and as you cross the top of the span, look down to your right (ideally when someone else is driving)
January 30, 2008, 10:25 pm
Re: Inside the Ford Motor Company Assembly Plant
The old pier is slowly giving way at the East end. Now they have stored 45 foot semi trailers just inside the wall and a few feet beyond the "DANGER KEEP OUT" part of the caving pier. INTENTIONAL? (your call).
The place is nearly under the West approach to the Matthews Bridge and a couple of blocks up a narrow, ugly industrial lane.
Will the new bridge bring it down? Will someone realize it's value? Could we create an entry grand enough to bring people that far from the activity centers of Stadium, Metropolitan Park etc??
Dead Body? In Jacksonville? You are kidding right NJtoJax? Hell Lake and I counted at least 24 of them in there, besides the one that chased us out of the old vault.
The vault was cool. The upstairs bathrooms were cool too, what a hell of a place to stick a bathroom.
I don't think commercial value would ever fly until retail/office overtakes the bend in the river at the Matthews in 4045. Until then, what comes to mind (if it doesn't all fall into the river) is maritime or transportation museum. It's sure big enough to hold (at the same time) a mock Ford Assembly line, a complete train, A B-25, 747 and the Graf Zeppelin, Trolley Barns or displays and Naval, Merchant Marine displays and ships on 3 sides. Not unlike PS-4 Annie Lytle, IF (a HUGE IF) anything this big ever developed in Jacksonville, and the Skyway reached the Stadium district, that or Streetcar might be an ideal way to tie it to downtown. (BTW, there once was an East Bay and a Talleyrand Streetcar route.)
Ocklawaha
January 30, 2008, 11:15 pm
Re: Inside the Ford Motor Company Assembly Plant
The place is nearly under the West approach to the Matthews Bridge and a couple of blocks up a narrow, ugly industrial lane.
Will the new bridge bring it down? Will someone realize it's value? Could we create an entry grand enough to bring people that far from the activity centers of Stadium, Metropolitan Park etc??
Dead Body? In Jacksonville? You are kidding right NJtoJax? Hell Lake and I counted at least 24 of them in there, besides the one that chased us out of the old vault.
The vault was cool. The upstairs bathrooms were cool too, what a hell of a place to stick a bathroom.
I don't think commercial value would ever fly until retail/office overtakes the bend in the river at the Matthews in 4045. Until then, what comes to mind (if it doesn't all fall into the river) is maritime or transportation museum. It's sure big enough to hold (at the same time) a mock Ford Assembly line, a complete train, A B-25, 747 and the Graf Zeppelin, Trolley Barns or displays and Naval, Merchant Marine displays and ships on 3 sides. Not unlike PS-4 Annie Lytle, IF (a HUGE IF) anything this big ever developed in Jacksonville, and the Skyway reached the Stadium district, that or Streetcar might be an ideal way to tie it to downtown. (BTW, there once was an East Bay and a Talleyrand Streetcar route.)
Ocklawaha
Thanks Ock! Good Stuff. I love reading your post man. You have much knowledge.
January 31, 2008, 10:01 am
Re: Inside the Ford Motor Company Assembly Plant
These kinds of Industrial Era relics are so different from the paper-mache buildings we have nowadays that it really is a shame that something like this might go unused or even be allowed to fall apart. The light looks amazing! OKL also hinted at the need for retail/office (ie urban stuff) to wrap the bend to make this area viable. There are lots of great examples of industrial building being converted for modern uses but its hard to ask people to live/work in a shipping yard. Will Jax ever be able to occupy that great river-front property for HUMAN use!!?? Another model is something like DIA Beacon (http://www.diabeacon.org/) that is completely disconnected from the nearest city's (NY) urban core but, by having great art and some visionary supporters, they were able to revive an old factory and even some of the local community. There is of course rail transportation right there - imagine that: rail spreading the wealth!
February 2, 2008, 4:36 pm
Re: Inside the Ford Motor Company Assembly Plant
Massive building! It would be neat to see this and many of the other old unused buildings be refurbished in to something practical. I would hope theyd rather renovate than let the structure fall into the river. That would cost alot more to clean up.
February 15, 2008, 3:37 pm
Re: Inside the Ford Motor Company Assembly Plant
Question is how do you actually get in there and shoot some decent photos without getting into trouble. WOuld love to have some photos of the whole place before they decide to just let it go. I do hope they would allow the public to vist since it's historic site. Also who do you contact for something like that?
February 15, 2008, 7:53 pm
Re: Inside the Ford Motor Company Assembly Plant
One can do a search through the property appraisers office or the Court House. Another possible site is the JEDC on line site, with the GIS mapping under services. As the scale of the map gets larger, their are more and more "Toys" to play with, layers and other cool details that one can select, So you could go from map to detailed block map, to even more detailed lot map, flood plain layers, then with a click, go to photo image, and lot Id and owner...
Another way is shoot the photos from public access. A sidewalk or road in front, back or side often gives great views of the whole place.
Also, walk right in, past the NO TRESPASSING sign to the nearest gatehouse, guard or office you see. Go in and tell them THE TRUTH... Just learn to add or delete to suit your needs... For example "Javier" is a shoe sales clerk at a local Wal Mart Store, he might get transferred to the stock room with a 10 cent raise. He's a happy man and loves to photograph old buildings.
Javier walks up to a guard and asks to see the plant manager... "Oh Mr. Plant isn't in today, but young J.D. is." So we wait for J. D. and he finally shows up. Stand up, walk up and shake his hand. "J. D. I work with the Wal Mart Corporation out of Bentonville, Arkansas, and am moving into their transportation and logistics systems division soon. I was driving by and saw your rail siding and thought it looked like a perfect model for something I have been telling them about... Would you mind if I took a couple of snap shots of the building, and it's relation to the railroad?"
Next, is Frank. Frank is a homeless guy that works enough to buy the next bottle of dinner and loves to shoot film for his laptop, plugged in behind the Prime Osbourne, under the bridge in a tent! Frank was once big on Computers and loves his building photos. He shows up at the gate which is fenced, guarded and photographed. "Hi I'm Frank, I study photography and have some ideas for new digital images of our City Buildings. Forgive my appearance but we've been working with the homeless all day and I've been asked to photograph anyplace that looks like it might develop a problem with these sort of people. Do y'all have a problem with people in the property?
Well, you get the idea, just fit the conversation to the problem and tackle it like your life or job depends on it. If they give permission with strings attached, "Okay, but stay away from XXX or don't photograph the trucks or... " RESPECT THEIR WISHES.
In any and all cases, "TAKE NOTHING BUT PICTURES AND LEAVE NOTHING BUT FOOTPRINTS...."
Ockalwaha
August 31, 2008, 5:04 pm
Re: Inside the Ford Motor Company Assembly Plant
Your pictures took my breath away. I've always looked at that while riding over the Mathew's(Matthews?) Bridge and wondered what it was. Thankyou SO MUCH for sharing
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