Ford Piquette Avenue Plant

01 / The story of this place

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Built in 1904 to plans by Field, Hinchman & Smith, this three-story brick factory in the Milwaukee Junction industrial district was Ford Motor Company's home until 1910 and the birthplace of the Model T. Henry Ford, James Couzens, C. Harold Wills and Charles E. Sorensen all worked here, and so did two Hungarian engineers: József Galamb, hired as a designer in December 1905, and Eugene Farkas, who joined in September 1907. From January 1907 a small team worked behind closed doors in an experimental room in the northeast corner of the top floor, where Galamb turned Ford's ideas into drawings for a new car and Farkas designed tools and fixtures to build it. On June 4, 1908, the plant set a record of 101 cars in a day, and that July Sorensen pulled chassis across the floor on skids, an early test of the moving assembly line. The first production Model T was finished here on September 27, 1908. Ford moved to Highland Park in 1910, and Studebaker built cars here until 1933. A nonprofit has run the plant as a museum since 2001; it became a National Historic Landmark in 2006.

1. Birthplace of the Model T; the first production car was finished September 27, 1908
2. Hungarian engineers József Galamb and Eugene Farkas worked in its experimental room
3. Record output of 101 cars in one day on June 4, 1908
4. Ford's home from 1904 to 1910; Studebaker used it until 1933
5. Museum since 2001; National Historic Landmark since 2006