Quote:
Originally Posted by Sandy G
Does Detroit have a big Polish population, & did a lot of 'em work at Packard ? Reason I ask, I remember reading in a "Motor Trend" a LONG time ago, they were reviewing a 1940 Packard 160 wagon, & they made a comment that its interior was "Made by elderly Polish craftsmen working in the East Grand Blvd" plant. Think I'd read elsewhere about the East Grand Blvd plant, as well. Funny how details can stick in yr noggin like that for almost 50 yrs...
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Yes, Detroit had a considerable Polish population, and the Metro area still does. Hamtramck was almost entirely Polish at one time (upwards of 90 percent), and Detroit had a very large Polish neighborhood aptly named "Poletown". Most of Poletown was demolished with the blessing of Mayor Coleman A. Young to make way for the GM Poletown plant, one of the many plants GM recently announced the closure of. The Poles all went out to the suburbs, Troy, Sterling Heights, Utica, Madison Heights, Roseville, and Warren in particular.
Cynics claim that Young gave the approval to demolish Poletown as retribution for the destruction of the Paradise Valley/Black Bottom/Hastings Street areas that were exclusively black, and destroyed to make way for the freeways in the 1950s and 1960s.
The remnants of Poletown and Hamtramck are both within 5-10 minutes driving distance of the Packard Plant, so it isn't unreasonable to assume that a good number of the workers were Polish. They weren't all though; my Grandfather was an ethnic German, lived in a predominantly German and Belgian neighborhood, and drove about 10-15 minutes to Packard until he left in 1954 when it was clear that Packard's days were numbered.
Actually, he claimed that the signs the company was having trouble financially were starting to creep up, even to the guys working the assembly line, as early as the winter-spring of 1946.