Famous people's places / Hamtramck
Chevrolet Gear & Axle Plant
Closed – archive entry · 2012
GM's Chevrolet forge and axle complex on the Detroit-Hamtramck border, where poet Philip Levine worked nights in the 1950s; closed 2012, demolished 2013.
01 / The story of this place
Make time for these
General Motors opened this Chevrolet forge and axle complex along St. Aubin Street on the Detroit-Hamtramck border in 1919, part of a cluster of GM plants that also built Cadillac aircraft parts and Northway engines. Poet Philip Levine worked the night shift here in the early 1950s before he became a poet; the plant's grinding machinery and displaced workers later inspired his poem "An Abandoned Factory, Detroit." GM sold the aging complex in 1994 to American Axle & Manufacturing, founded by Richard Dauch, who kept it running under union contracts for another 18 years. American Axle closed its Detroit factories in 2012 and demolished most of the sprawling complex in 2013; the cleared land was sold the following year to an industrial redevelopment company. Nothing of the historic plant survives on the site today.
- GM forge and axle complex opened along St. Aubin Street in 1919
- Philip Levine worked the night shift here in the early 1950s
- Inspired his poem "An Abandoned Factory, Detroit"
- American Axle & Manufacturing took over the plant in 1994
- Closed in 2012 and demolished in 2013
Famous Detroiters
Famous people tied to this place 1
Lexicon entries for the people who lived, worked, performed or liked to spend time here.
- Philip Levine 1928–2015 · poet, essayist, professor
Worked here
He worked the night shift here; the plant inspired his poem An Abandoned Factory, Detroit. American Axle bought it in 1994 and later shut it down.
Sources & fact check · Checked: 2026-09-25
An independently written bilingual guide. This collection is not an attendance-based ranking.
03 / Events
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Source and former website ↗