Building Fords in the new San Jose plant, 1955. Black and white photos courtesy Ford Motor Company archives.
[Editor’s Note: This piece comes to us from Myles Kornblatt, the curator at the Miami Auto Museum. He contributes to multiple automotive publications and is the Automotive Correspondent for the Florida Weekly.]
A complete transformation can sometimes eclipse a lifetime of significance. Some people only know Clint Eastwood as a director, MTV used to be Music Television, and few realize some of the most iconic Fords came from where people now buy Grand Theft Auto.
Ford’s San Jose Plant is now a shopping center known as The Great Mall. It was the birthplace of the Skyliner hardtop convertible, entry-level Edsels, and the three generations of Mustangs (including all of the 1965-67 cars that would become Shelby GTs). And today this former factory still has a secret hidden within its retail walls.
New Mustangs on the line, 1964.
Back in 1953, Ford was replacing its pre-WWII bay front Richmond plant in Northern California with a facility that offered more space. Inexpensive land was purchased north of San Jose, and so the facility is often linked to that city. But that’s not entirely true. The town of Milpitas officially incorporated that area in-between the time Ford secured the land and the plant opened on March 1, 1955.
The huge 1.4 million square-foot facility often served as Ford’s outpost to produce the most popular models for distribution along the west coast. By 1962, the busy factory churned out 135,963 vehicles annually. Over the years it was home to Falcons, Escorts, Rancheros, F-Series pickups, Pintos, many Mercury vehicles, and of course, Mustangs. But as competition increased throughout the 1970s and 80s, this boomtown went bust.
Assembling Pintos and Mustang IIs, 1974.
The factory closed its doors on May 20, 1983. It would remain unused for over a decade since there are very few operations that need this amount of space. The huge indoor structure could only serve as a large-scale way to offer products to the masses, thus it seems only fitting that in 1994 it reopened as The Great Mall of the Bay Area.
A Ford exhibit pays homage to the mall’s former purpose. This and remaining photos by Myles Kornblatt.
Today the one-time industrial complex is far more bright and airy, and the most mass-produced item is likely the food court’s corndog. But the echoes of iconic cars are still felt throughout the complex. It permeates everything from the industrial roof trusses to how the feeder roads bear names like Falcon, Comet, and Mustang. There’s even a storefront at the entrance to Neighborhood #4 that has a factory timeline, artifacts, and a 1957 Fairlane 500 Skyliner.
While this makes for a worthwhile visit for Ford fans in the area, there is one more hidden piece that is the most interesting. Fire codes are important to all buildings, and in this case, they also saved a portion of the original factory.
As this fire corridor demonstrates, the Great Mall has plenty of space to work with.
The standard mall is one continuous hallway with emergency exits leading from a store’s rear directly to the outside. But this former Ford factory is so massive that developers created an entire interior and exterior loop of shops under one roof. That means all of the inner stores have emergency exits that filter into one central location that then channels people outside of the building.
Area street signs hint at the site’s former purpose.
Sound confusing? Just think of it as a large jelly donut, except instead of a gooey center, it’s hallowed Mustang ground.
Unlike the public spaces, the interior fire exit corridor did not need to be remodeled from its factory days. The space is purposely uncluttered, but the tracks on the cement floor are still visible. The roof remains unpainted and largely untouched from its industrial days.
2016: The roof truss of the Great Mall looks remarkably similar to the building’s assembly line years.
Our tour guide for this private space was Michael Strle, General Manager of The Great Mall. He is a local with connections to the Ford days, which makes him the exact person enthusiasts want as a gatekeeper to this secret. Strle’s sister-in-law’s father was a blacksmith in the factory, and he might even pass along a tale or two that friends have told him over the years. Some of these go against the better-known histories of very rare cars (including one about a Cobra that went missing within these walls). Strle might be spreading folklore to keep the spirit alive, or maybe he has some exclusive million-dollar info…either way, we all WANT his stories to be true.
It’s not suggested that anyone reading this try to view the inside corridor. Designed for high traffic use, the space is meticulously litter-free – all those loose Mustang bolts have been swept away decades ago. So sneaking back there will only set off alarms, and a chat with authorities is not worth the price of admission. Instead, the idea is to enjoy the pictures, tour the public history, and know that any classic Ford from the San Jose family can still find its soul (and a snow cone) at The Great Mall.
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