Bryan Everitt was born in rural Ontario in
1872, then moved to Detroit in the 1890s to work as a carriage maker. By
the late 1890s, he
had his own
successful shop. When the R. E. Olds’ plant
on the east side burned in 1902, Olds turned to Everitt for the bodies he needed.
This business boomed,
so Everitt
recruited Fred and Charles Fisher from their carriage business in Norwalk,
Ohio to build the curbed dash bodies that Olds used in his popular model.
In 1903, Everitt formed his own auto manufacturing firm, the Wayne Automobile
Company, but his firm continued to supply bodies to Olds and then to Ford.
Indeed, he built his Wayne plant on Piquette so that he could easily supply
Ford while also building Waynes.
William E. Metzger, born in Peru, Illinois
in 1878, came to Detroit as a youth and developed a successful business selling
bicycles.
Cars fascinated
him, so he attended the 1895 International Automobile exposition in London.
He organized the first US auto show, held in New York’s Madison Square
Garden in 1900. The next year, he established the first auto dealership in
this country, in Detroit, of course. He sold a variety of gasoline- and electric-powered
vehicles in small numbers, but business grew so much that in 1903, he had Albert
Kahn design 
a
four-story addition to his building on East Jefferson.
Walter Flanders was born in Vermont in 1871, dropped out of school at an early age, went to Cleveland where he took a job as a machinist at Singer Sewing Machine company, and then to Detroit where he worked at the Waltham Machine Shop. While there, Henry Ford asked for 1,000 crank shanks. Flanders produced them so rapidly and competently that Ford hired him. He rose to superintend Ford production in the pre-Model T era. Flanders, however, did not get along with Mr. Ford, so he was fired or quit just one week before Ford announced the Model T. Flanders took credit for developing the production facilities that Ford used when he first made Model T’s on Piquette Street.
Everitt, Metzger and Flanders got together in the spring of 1908 and decided to produce a moderate-priced car for that large market of consumers that Ford sought to tap with his Model T. Their new firm was, in many ways, a merger of seven existing auto firms include Everitt’s Wayne. From 1908 to 1912, E-M-F’s were produced in Detroit. This was not the ideal choice of initials since competitors said they stood for; “Every Mechanics Friend,” or “Every Mechanical Fault” or “Every Monday Fix-it.”
These entrepreneurs began to raise capital for a large firm, and realized that they needed an effective marketing system to compete with Henry Ford. They were successful in securing the funds to build the large factory that you see, one that opened in 1910 or 1911. It was designed to turn out 10,000 cars per year. As for sales, they decided to collaborate with Studebaker, the South Bend wagon maker that had moved gingerly into the automobile business.
Many companies sought to stand out in the early automobile industry. EMF caught a great break. In the summer of 1909, an organizer promoted an automobile tour from Chicago to Denver across the roadless Great Plains. Remarkably, an EMF car served as the pathfinder and performed flawlessly. Metzger—the publicist of the group—capitalized upon this marvelous accomplishment.
The collaboration with Studebaker was promising
since that firm claimed to have 4,000 dealers selling its wagons across the
county, but
did not work out
so well. Basically, the founders of EMF apparently believed they were a new
car company that would use the Studebaker sales, while Studebaker officials
probably saw them as a
dependent
supplier. Studebaker was quite successful in marketing their cars once they
got into the business. However, they were
basically an assembly firm putting together
parts made elsewhere, particularly by the Cleveland based Garland firm, a name
added to many Studebakers.
In 1909, Metzger and Everitt sold their shares in EMF to Studebaker, leaving Flanders to both run EMF and deal with Studebaker. By 1911, Flanders was also gone. After court battles and disagreements, Studebaker took total control of EMF in 1912 and stopped using that nameplate.
In 1909 and 1910, the Studebaker-EMF group was the fourth leading producer, trailing only Ford, Buick and Willys. By 1911, they moved to second in production.
As the United States approached World War I, the demand grew for horse-drawn artillery wagons. Studebaker got the military contracts and stopped assembling vehicles in South Bend, so all Studebakers were made at Detroit’s Piquette Street Plant. After the war, Studebaker recognized they had a valuable marquee, but decided not to remodel their old carriage factories for the automotive industry. Instead, they started to construct massive array of modern assembly plants that still stand just south of downtown South Bend. As those new plants came on line, Studebaker shifted production to Indiana, and by 1926, the Detroit production line was shut. The plant you see, I believe, was sold to Ford.
Most of the Studebaker/EMF plant has been idle for some time, although parts of it may still be used for warehousing. In 2004, elaborate plans were announced to convert this building into attractive and expensive condos. If employment in downtown Detroit and in the corridor linking the city’s Cultural and New Centers booms, this attractive Milwaukee Junction plant may once again become lively but it a different manner than it was in the early 1920s.
Architect: Unknown to me
Date of Construction: 1910
Architectural style: It is a transitional auto plant. The earliest plants were
constructed in the mill style such as the adjoining Ford Plant at Piquette
and Beaubien. The typical modern Albert Kahn plant is the nearby Fisher
Body #21, also just a stone’s throw away on Beaubien. This Studebaker
plant resembles the 1905 Cadillac plant that you can see by walking the short
distance over to
450 Amsterdam.
City of Detroit Local Historic District: Not listed
State of Michigan Registry of Historic Sites: Not listed
National Register of Historic Sties: Not listed
Photographs: Ren Farley; March 28, 2005; July, 2005
Websites:
Everitt/Metzger/Flanders: http://www.dreamweaver.org/emfauto/
Studebaker: http://www.studebaker100.com
Architect: Unknown
Date of Construction: About 1915
Architectural Style: Modern automobile factory
Use in 2005: Empty building but there are plans for loft and condo development
City of Detroit Local Historic District: Not listed
State of Michigan Registry of Historic Sites: Not listed
National Register of Historic Sites: Not listed
Photograph: Ren Farley; March 28, 2005