10/10/05 - The Real Packard Plant.
After going into the Fisher Body Plant we thought we went in the Packard; but the internet revealed we hadn't. Anyway, we still had fun that day & set off to find a theatre to go into (Donnie really wanted too); so we chose the Easttown Theatre and got over to Van Dyke & Harper to try to get in.
Well we looked around the building and the only way we thought we could get in was this one door. We tried to work it for a bit, but then it opened from the inside & we all ran away so fast we didn't even see who opened it.
We drove around that area for a bit more since it was quite rundown.
Driving around we spotted a house that was reduced to a pile of matter.
Well we continued our drive & spotted a building towering over all in our sight. We drove towards it and found likely the biggest abandoned building in Detroit...the Packard Plant.
"Packard produced luxury automobiles, in addition to other important items. Packard built the Rolls-Royce Merlin engines that powered many fighters in World War II. Packard also produced the Liberty engine that powered American planes in World War I. All built at the Packard Plant in downtown Detroit.
The Packard Plant consists of roughly 40 buildings, all connected in a huge, almost mile long, maze."
Source: Jason Hill, http://www.ai-studio.com/jason/about/
I figured I'd give you guys some background information so you know what's up.
If you're wondering where this is, it's the building you would see about 5 minutes outside of Detroit if you took the 696 towards Port Huron/Sarnia.
Well anyway, we learned from the Fisher Body Plant not to park too close; so we parked right next to a Mobil in hopes that no one would steal the cargo van.
We walked over & headed on in to the first open building we found.
Lots of times most things are scrapped and taken from these buildings, but sometimes you find stuff.
Chris. House Slippers.
...and other times you find cars...
...and boats...
Quite an old building.
A look at the area we were walking up.
The next area we went into had 3 stolen cars. When I showed Marcotte these pictures he had this to say, "Man Belle River's going to start looking like that soon, I'm running out of money." No worries though, Marcotte couldn't remove a bike wheel, how's he going to manage a vehicle wheel.
An old stolen car.
Spray-paint to put us at ease.
The next building we went into had the window frames removed at the staircases. No window frames, no handrails...sounds good to me.
We stumbled upon the area covered in graffiti. The Kentucky legend COUPE getting up in Detroit.
FBS crew.
The floor with all the graffiti had windows, but the frames were gone again. It looked weird such a large area open to the inside on the 2nd floor.
More Graffiti, if you want your name listed, tell me who this is...
Window frames falling down, this place would be weird in a winter storm I think.
A racing slick. There's a story that sometime in the 90's, 4000 tires were discovered here upon an inspection. The tires weren't there before, but just came about somehow.
FEW Columbus, Ohio graf.
Another quite large COUPE.
Some Boone's 26er. Looks like Brad (not Laporte) was here before us.
NOE graf.
Alright enough graffiti. Once up a few more levels we got quite the view over the entire infrastructure. Every building you see in this picture is abandoned.
We spotted MONEY & THOR tags on this water tower & realized just how crazy it was once we got over there. Parts of the ladder were broken off & all of the ladders were quite rusty. They got props from Donnie & myself for sure.
One of the covered bridges from area to area.
Everyone's favorite: TURDL
The fifth floor was weird because there was nothing on the others, then suddenly all kinds of crap.
Including some amazing graffiti.
I always like when trees & vegetation take over these buildings. The bland colours of the floor with slight amounts of green.
Everyone's favorite again: DEAD KRAK HEAD
Pretty wild that someone was in here exploring when I wasn't even born.
A view around once we got on the roof.
That BAD TEMPR roller was damn crazy; a small ledge and a walk across.
Another view of the area.
Spotted this when on the roof...did TEADER stick his hand out and spray paint this?
So we needed to get back because Chris had dinner with the Steph's. So we got out of there & walked back to where our van was parked. While walking I spotted this ghetto truck & it grinded the ground as it drove. And my Dad was worried about some grinding ass brakes.
We still had an hour to kill, so we stopped in this parking lot when we spotted this abandoned car.
It's funny that this car is nicer than Donnie's, Chris' or mine. Leather interior and no radio in the middle of Detroit.
So we redeemed our interest in abandoned buildings after that Fisher fiasco. May have to go pack to the Packard plant though, after all we probably only explored 25% of it.
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