P7543

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Details

ID Number

P7543

Item Name

Image

Title

Ford of Canada employees / Employés de Ford du Canada ltée

Title (Fre)

Employés de Ford du Canada ltée

Description

Black and white photograph of 96 unidentified people in front of the Ford Motor Company plant on Riverside Drive E., at Drouillard; the men and women in the photograph are all wearing suits and dresses; they are lined up in front of a large brick building with awnings along the second-floor windows; the A-shaped building at left had been the Walkerville Wagon Works and became the first Ford of Canada plant in 1904; the four-storey building at centre, with the awnings, was added in 1911 and extended over the Detroit River; it was demolished in 1970.

History

The Ford Motor Company was established in Canada in 1904 when a group of Windsor businessmen began negotiations with a struggling Detroit inventor named Henry Ford. Ford's first plant was located in the former plant of the Walkerville Wagon Works which overlooked the Detroit River. Location was key as the cars were assembled one by one as parts were ferried by wagonload across the river. The first car built in Canada was the Model C. 1904 - 1905, the first year of operations, the company employed 16 men and turned out 114 automobiles. Ford extended capacity in 1910 by building a three-storey automobile plant on Sandwich St., close to the company's first building. In 1911 a reinforced building of four floors was erected containing 60,000 feet of floor space. Many parts factories sprang up to supply the demands which grew out of the automobile industry. In 1913, assembly line techniques and moving conveyors were introduced and by 1914 the company was producing 14,500 units per year. In 1915, Ford introduced the "Four Dollar a Day" plan over a six-day, eight-hour work week. The municipality of Ford City grew around the Ford plant. Ford City became a village in 1913, a town in 1915 and became the City of East Windsor on June 1, 1929. Expansion of the Ford Motor Company continued during the 1920s and was a major factor of the city's development. By the summer of 1928, 8000 men were employed by the company and an output of 500 cars per day was predicted for 1929. When war was declared in 1939, all resources and facilities of Ford of Canada were committed to serving the war effort. The Windsor plant was retooled for the construction of war vehicles and produced 8000 Universal Carriers, a half-auto, half-tank vehicle, in just over two years. By April of 1945, Ford of Canada had supplied the armed forces with 380,000 motor vehicles valued at more than $650,000,000. In 1954, Ford of Canada's Head Office was relocated to Oakville, Ontario in order to be closer to the major population centres of the nation. Today, Ford of Canada assembles cars and trucks at two plants in Oakville and one near St. Thomas. It produces engines, aluminum engine parts and iron castings at five plants in Windsor. The Company's cast aluminum research and development facility is also located in Windsor. Its operations employ approximately 17,000 people across Canada.

Place made

Canada - Ontario - Windsor

Collection Name

Museum Windsor

Subjects

Automobile Assembly / Chaîne de montage automobile

Automobile industry / Industrie de l'automobile

Drouillard Rd. / Rue Drouillard

Employees / Employés

Ford City (Ont.)

Ford Motor Company of Canada Ltd. / Ford du Canada ltée

Men / Hommes

Riverside Dr. E. / Promenade Riverside Est

Walkerville Wagon Works / Usines d'assemblage Walkerville Wagon Works

Women / Femmes