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Photograph of Highland Park Ford Plant
Photograph by Bernard L. Johnson, Public domain. Via Wikimedia Commons.

Highland Park Plant, Ford Motor Company

A National Historic Landmark. Listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1973.

From the record

“The Highland Park Ford Plant is a historic former Ford Motor Company factory located at 91 Manchester Street in Highland Park, Michigan. It was Ford's third factory and the second American Model T production facility, but the factory gained notoriety as the first factory in history to assemble automobiles on a moving assembly line.”

Wikipedia article Highland Park Ford Plant, CC BY-SA 4.0.

One of 396 National Register listings published here for Wayne County · listed in 1973 · category: Building · a National Historic Landmark.

Sources: the Wikipedia article · the case file at the National Archives · the National Register database, National Park Service

The listing

  • Address. 15050 Woodward Ave., Highland Park, 48203
  • When was it listed? February 1973
  • Category. building
  • City. Highland Park city
  • Architect. Albert Kahn
  • National Register reference number. 73000961 - the number the National Park Service assigned this property when it was listed, and the key its nomination file is catalogued under at the National Archives.

Fires near this property

158 since 2018

Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The federal wildfire occurrence database lists 158 fires within 5 miles of Highland Park Plant, Ford Motor Company between 2018 and 2020, burning about 157 acres in total. 24 started naturally. None was recorded as arson. Distance is straight-line from the map coordinates, so a fire counted here may appear on a neighbouring settlement's page as well.

Reported cause Fires
Debris and open burning69
Equipment and vehicle use38
Natural24
Missing data/not specified/undetermined17
Recreation and ceremony8
Smoking2

The most recent of them, most recent first, with the day each was reported and the service that recorded it.

DateCause SizeReported by Name on the report
9 September 2019Debris and open burning1.0 acresMichigan Department of Natural ResourcesDETROIT FD 0032226 - 2019
8 September 2019Natural1.0 acresMichigan Department of Natural ResourcesDETROIT FD 0032107 - 2019
7 September 2018Equipment and vehicle use1.0 acresMichigan Department of Natural ResourcesDETROIT FD 0033020 - 2018
6 September 2018Debris and open burning1.0 acresMichigan Department of Natural ResourcesDETROIT FD 0032843 - 2018
3 September 2019Debris and open burning1.0 acresMichigan Department of Natural ResourcesDETROIT FD 0031432 - 2019
3 September 2019Debris and open burning1.0 acresMichigan Department of Natural ResourcesDETROIT FD 0031469 - 2019
28 September 2018Natural1.0 acresMichigan Department of Natural ResourcesDETROIT FD 0035675 - 2018
27 September 2019Debris and open burning1.0 acresMichigan Department of Natural ResourcesDETROIT FD 0034689 - 2019

Every fire recorded in Wayne County

Storms near this property

18 since 1997

Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The National Weather Service names Highland Park, the town this property stands in, in 18 storm reports between 1997 and 2024: 9 thunderstorm wind, 3 flash flood, 3 hail, 1 tornado. The reports record 2 deaths and 91 injuries. Each account below is quoted exactly as the forecast office filed it, from the NOAA Storm Events Database, and each date opens the federal record of that event.

WhenEvent Place namedHarm What the report says
July 2006LightningHighland Park1 killed, 1 hurtA couple was struck by lightning after taking shelter from the rain under a tree at 2301 EST in Krainz Park near East Hildale and Justine on Detroit's east side. The pair was taken to Detroit Receiving Hospital, where the 44 year old woman was later pronounced dead. The 2nd person, a 46 year old male, survived but was initially in temporary serious condition at the hospital.
July 2011Thunderstorm WindHighland Park1 killedA man was killed due to a fallen wire.
July 1997Tornado (F2)Highland Park90 hurt, $90,000,000no account filed
June 2008Thunderstorm WindHighland Park$50,000Trees reported down.
July 2011Flash FloodHighland Park$20,000Standing water on Interstate 75 throughout Detroit, cars stranded.
August 2000Thunderstorm WindHighland Park$15,000Several trees were downed in the Palmer Woods subdivision on the north side of Detroit. A large tree was downed across the southbound lanes of Woodward Avenue (M-1) north of Seven Mile Road, blocking traffic for two hours.
July 2024Flash FloodHighland Park-The Michigan Department of Transportation reporting flooding closing sections of I-94 and I-75.
June 2023Thunderstorm WindHighland Park-Large tree was blown down onto a car at Detroit Golf Club.
September 2021FloodHighland Park-Flooding reported at 6 mile road and I-75 with cars stalled under the overpass.
July 2020Thunderstorm WindHighland Park-Numerous trees reported down.
May 2018Thunderstorm WindHighland Park-Trees reported down.
August 2014Thunderstorm WindHighland Park-Large tree uprooted.
July 2013Thunderstorm WindHighland Park-A large tree was reported blown down onto a house.
June 2011Thunderstorm WindHighland Park-Several downed trees on the west side of Detroit.
September 2022HailHighland Park-no account filed
August 2020Flash FloodHighland Park-no account filed
August 2014HailHighland Park-no account filed
July 2012HailHighland Park-no account filed

Every storm recorded in Wayne County

Map coverage status

No historic map-sheet match is published for this property yet. That does not mean no map exists. This record needs a coordinate-quality review before it can be joined to a sheet boundary. Browse the county's mapped places while that work is pending.

Listed places nearby

6 within 8 miles

Other National Register properties close enough to walk or drive between, ordered by distance from this one. Both positions come from the same geocoding pass that matched these properties to their map sheets.

Photograph PropertyDistance Listed
First United Methodist Church0.5 miles1982
Trinity United Methodist Church0.6 miles1982
Medbury`s-Grove Lawn Subdivisions Historic District0.7 miles1988
Highland Heights-Stevens` Subdivision Historic District0.9 miles1988
Grace Evangelical Lutheran Church0.9 miles1982
Highland Park Presbyterian Church0.9 miles1982

Sources for this property

National Archives recordThe nomination case file for reference 73000961 in Record Group 79.
Wikipedia articleCommunity-written account of this property, licensed CC BY-SA.
Wayne CountyAll 396 listed properties in this county.

Provenance

  • Listing record. National Park Service National Register of Historic Places, listed-properties dataset, current to 2026-05-22.
  • Map join. Address geocoded through the United States Census geocoder, then tested against the published boundary of every sheet in the USGS Historical Topographic Map Collection.
  • How this page is made. Listing fields come from federal records; map-sheet coverage is a labelled coordinate-to-boundary calculation, not a source-field claim.
  • Wildfire. Short, Karen C. 2022. Spatial wildfire occurrence data for the United States, 1992-2020 [FPA_FOD_20221014]. 6th Edition. Fort Collins, CO: Forest Service Research Data Archive. https://doi.org/10.2737/RDS-2013-0009.6 Collected with United States Government funding and usable without additional permissions or fees.
  • Storms. NOAA National Centers for Environmental Information, Storm Events Database https://www.ncei.noaa.gov/stormevents/ A work of the United States government, no copyright under 17 U.S.C. 105. Narratives are quoted verbatim from the National Weather Service report and are not edited or summarised.