Hudson Body Plant?

RL Chilton

Does anyone know when Hudson opened the Gratiot Body Plant?

hudsontech

Found the following excerpt at this URL:
http://www.detroit1701.org/Hudson Motor Car.html
The success of Hudson continued after World War I. Hudson was the marque used for their high-quality, medium-priced car while, beginning in 1919, they used the Essex marque for a much lower-priced model. In 1919, the Hudson firm produced and sold about 39,000 cars in the two lines, but this grew to 46,000 the next year and continued to rise to 134,000 cars in 1934. Clearly, Hudson needed more production facilities, so another complex of factories arose near the intersection of Connor and Gratiot linked by rail to the older factories at East Jefferson and Connor.

Most of the plants in the complex at Jefferson and Conner have been razed, but not the one shown above. I believe this building was constructed in the early 1920s by the Clayton-Lambert firm, a company that produced bodies for Hudson. As Hudson sales went up, they decided to buy this supplier, so this building may have become the Hudson stamping plant for bodies as early as 1922 or, perhaps, as late as 1926.

Hudsonly,
Alex Burr
Memphis, TN

RL Chilton

Thanks, Alex!