Inside the Ford Motor Company Assembly Plant

[Metro Jacksonville]

Inside the Ford Motor Company Assembly Plant



Metro Jacksonville takes a look inside of one of the urban core's largest industrial ruins: The Ford Motor Company Assembly Plant.

Full Article
http://www.metrojacksonville.com/content/view/703

[billy]

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.

[NJ to JAX WHAT DID I DO?]

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.

[billy]

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.

[thelakelander]

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/

[hanjin1]

This would have been awesome for the the farmers market.

[second_pancake]

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   If it were kept all commercial then there would be less work involved in restoration and you wouldn't need to worry about long-term parking.  On a smaller scale, there's the old slave sales place in Charleston, SC on the river.  The closest thing we have to anything like that right now is The Landing.  If this place were built up as a commercial space, it would throw some competition their way and we'd see The Landing improve as well, which will only benefit Jax even more

[willydenn]

I agree with Pancake.  If done right correctly it would put the Landing to shame.   

[Coolyfett]

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

[Steve]

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)

[Ocklawaha]

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

[Coolyfett]

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

Thanks Ock! Good Stuff. I love reading your post man. You have much knowledge.

[hank]

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!

[Timkin]

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.

[Derweissehai]

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?