Friday, October 2, 2009

Flint Postcards: Paterson Carriage Co.



23 comments:

  1. Is this building still up? Was this the building that became a local artist's market in Carriage Town briefly in the 80's?

    ReplyDelete
  2. http://www.flint.lib.mi.us/timeline/autohistory_0798/patersonCo.html

    ReplyDelete
  3. This building was at the corner of Third and Harrison.

    ReplyDelete
  4. Oops, that would be Third Street and Harrison.

    ReplyDelete
  5. According to the FPL auto-history timeline linked by Anonymous above, the depicted building was William Paterson's 1895 carriage factory. A building at Saginaw and Second Street, bought by Paterson in 1909 and renamed the Dryden Building after his wife's family, was his motorcar factory.

    Paterson also built the Paterson Building.

    Interestingly, there is a figured "P" on the facade of the ex-Vogue/Copa building, which is near the Dryden. http://www.flickr.com/photos/sarahrazak/1094593421/

    Perhaps this is the Paterson Building?

    ReplyDelete
  6. What's the correct spelling of Paterson's last name? Some sources say Patterson.

    The home he built near downtown, as of 1908:

    http://www.cardcow.com/140552/residence-of-w-a-patterson-cor-3rd-and-clifford-sts-flint-michigan-flint/

    He had grand architectural tastes.

    ReplyDelete
  7. Heh. One more Paterson-originated edifice...the Hotel Dresden, somewhere in downtown Flint.

    http://www.cardcow.com/59518/dresden-hotel-flint-michigan-flint/

    ReplyDelete
  8. My Grandma worked at a carriage factory...I wonder if it was this one.
    She told us how terrible it was to be there and she also got her fingers caught in the machine!

    RoadsideDinerLover

    ReplyDelete
  9. I'm confused by this discussion so I'll posit the following and let other more learned on these matters correct me:

    I've always believed that the Paterson Carriage Factory consisted of two buildings -- this one at the northwest corner of 3rd Avenue and Harrison, and another at the southwest corner of that intersection. The latter was five or six stories with a tunnel underneath 3rd that connected them and allowed production vehicles to be transferred from one building to another without interrupting surface traffic. Also, the latter was a darker brick -- a brown color.

    In the mid to late Eighties, there were informal discussions with Flint's Historic District Commission on preserving and re-habbing the south factory into lofts and retail space. Obviously, those plans never came to fruition.

    The Paterson Office Building was at the northeast corner of 3rd Avenue and Saginaw.

    Hoping that Gerry G or Will or another poster might have the correct answer here.

    ReplyDelete
  10. Oops! Major egg on face. The numbered avenues are north of the river -- the numbered streets are south. (Not enough coffee on a rainy morning.)

    ReplyDelete
  11. Here is a photo of Harrison Street taken in the late 1970s with one of the Paterson factory buildings:

    http://www.flickr.com/photos/92726077@N00/3040517656/in/set-72157594414829203/

    ReplyDelete
  12. What was the street location of the Hotel Dresden?

    Given the more plausible explanations of the Paterson motorcar factory complex along Harrison, does anyone know the origin of the figured "P" at the top center of the facade of the Vogue/Copa building?

    And, was the Dryden Building used for motorcar-manufacturing-related purposes (offices?), or was it just independent commercial-tenanted space?

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Across the street from St. Paul's. As teenagers, we sat on the lawn of the church & watched the fire consume the hotel. Sad. It started in the middle of the night & was fully occupied, I believe 2 people died.

      Delete
  13. Hotel Dresden was on southwest corner of Third Street and S. Saginaw. First Pres. Church now occupies the whole block.

    http://books.google.com/books?id=pOlyyc17M-oC&pg=PA14&lpg=PA14&dq=durant+hotel+dresden&source=bl&ots=gGstM1t_Fk&sig=x0xzNVBW72XPlxNZWnY-T1FtieI&hl=en&ei=CM_ISqb1F4G6lAfgmp2SAw&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=8#v=onepage&q=durant%20hotel%20dresden&f=false

    ReplyDelete
  14. Sometime in the late twenties, the two Paterson buildings at Harrison and Third streets were renovated and renamed the Bronson-Fisher Building and the Pengelly Building respectively.

    The first J.C. Penny store in Flint was located in the Dryden Building, which was originally constructed by William.A. Paterson.

    W.A. Paterson also built the Dresden Hotel, located at Saginaw and Third Steets in 1907. (William Durant is said to have often used it as a second office before the Durant Hotel was completed in 1920). In August, 1963, after the name had been changed to the Adams Hotel, a fire broke out in the middle of the night while the hotel was nearly fully occupied. There were two fatalities and the building was destroyed.

    ReplyDelete
  15. I should check the archives here before cross-posting:

    http://www.flintexpats.com/2008/10/flint-postcards-hotel-dresden-at-night.html

    ReplyDelete
  16. http://news.google.com/newspapers?nid=348&dat=19630812&id=5IIEAAAAIBAJ&sjid=djEDAAAAIBAJ&pg=2667,4350862

    ReplyDelete
  17. Paterson built 2 or 3 homes on Lake Fenton as well. My grandparents bought one of them from his son.

    ReplyDelete
  18. Back in the 1980s this building was where the Agree Reality Theatre performed. Later it became Buckham Alley Theatre. It has since come down and is a parking lot for St. Paul's Episcopal Church.

    ReplyDelete
  19. This building was on the NW corner of Harrison and 3rd st. it was factory and showroom for the carriages and autos of W.A. Paterson. On the SW corner stood the rest of factory with a tunnel under
    Third st. connecting the two. The majority of the complex was built between 1895 and 1903 with the 5 story dark brown (hocking valley pavers) factory on the SW corner being the last the last built in 1905. It was called a cloud scrapper in the Flint Journal article at the time. The factory on the North side was latter the Pengelly building. My Grandfather C.M. Brownson bought the southern complex in 1927-28 to house his business partnership Brownson (with a W)- Fisher Wallpaper and Paint. That business was sold to Fisher Wallpaper in 1962-63 with the Brownsons' retaining the buildings until 1990's, when it was sold to the Farahs. The 3 story factory along Harrison St. was refaced and joined to the 5 story section in the early 1950,s. The Brownson building over the years was the first home to the Institute of Arts. Was home to the Baker Business College for years. Had Social Security, IRS, THY design, B and B tile. A pattern shop on the fourth floor (Acme)who on a hand shake lease in the building from the 1928 opening of the Brownson Bldg to it's close in 1990's. Agree Theater and Music Warehouse also occupied space. Also had a blind pig on the 3rd floor during prohibition. I submitted and received National, State, and belatedly City historic designations by the early 1980's. The Paterson office bldg shows behind the Pengally Bldg in your postcard- it burned, but was rebuilt in 1931 almost as original. Paterson's Dryden office building still stands and houses the downtown post office. The Brownson site still has it's historic designation and it's history would be available through the State Historic. Sorry for the long post, but the history of Flint is important. Thanks for the opportunity.

    ReplyDelete
  20. Ok, the paterson factory was on 3rd and harrison. It is now a parking lot for one of the big churches down town. The paterson "office" building is located at Saginaw and third. This building has been in my family for years now. For more on the paterson building go to

    http://thepatersonbuilding.com/

    ReplyDelete

Thanks for commenting. I moderate comments, so it may take a while for your comment to appear. You might enjoy my book about Flint called "Teardown: Memoir of a Vanishing City," a Michigan Notable Book for 2014 and a finalist for the 33rd Annual Northern California Book Award for Creative NonFiction. Filmmaker Michael Moore described Teardown as "a brilliant chronicle of the Mad Maxization of a once-great American city." More information about Teardown is available at www.teardownbook.com.