Photo via Packard Proving Grounds.
Like that other remnant of the Packard automobile company near downtown Detroit, the Packard Proving Grounds could have been abandoned to decay for decades. Or the grounds and their buildings could have been razed for a distribution center or another suburban subdivision like the ones that have sprung up around it. Instead, a local group has preserved at least part of the grounds and their efforts have earned them a nomination for one of this year’s MotorCities National Heritage Area Awards of Excellence.
Fortunately for the Packard Motor Car Foundation, formed in 1997 to save the grounds from development, the proving grounds remained more or less as Packard left them when the luxury car company ceased operations there in 1956. Built in 1927 to provide Packard with some secrecy from prying eyes for car development, the grounds encompassed more than 300 acres in Shelby Township and included a 2.5-mile oval track, test roads of varying quality, a landing strip, an aircraft hangar, and a gate house and lodge with an eight-car garage. Curtiss-Wright operated the grounds for a few years after Packard before selling the property to Ford in 1961.
By the mid-1990s, however, Ford – which had used the grounds for light manufacturing but had left all the original buildings standing – looked into selling off the property and even went so far as to apply for a demolition permit on the then 70-year-old buildings to make the property easier to market.
In response, local auto enthusiasts and history buffs formed the foundation to negotiate a way to preserve the proving grounds with Ford. Most of the property ended sold off, but Ford split off the 14 acres that included the entry road, gate house, and garage to donate to the foundation.
Since then, the foundation has convinced the Department of the Interior to place the proving grounds on the National Register of Historic Places and has operated the grounds on a non-profit basis while restoring the buildings.
Nominated for the MotorCities Preservation award, the proving grounds will face off against the Fort Street Bridge Park project and against the Story of the Week feature on MotorCities.org. Other finalists include the Edsel and Eleanor Ford House, Tourism Windsor Essex Pelee Island, and Stan Johnson’s work with the Model A Museum for the Tourism award, as well as the American Society of Body Engineers’s Tours and Design Challenge, Robert Edwards’s “American Dreaming” exhibit and film project, and the “Second Shift” documentary film and book project for the Education and Interpretation award.
The 2016 MotorCities Excellence awards ceremony will take place November 30 at the state Capitol in Lansing. For more information, visit MotorCities.org.
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