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Motorola Inc. This is where your TV was made! Franklin Park, IL
If you are familar with Motorola TV's then you are also familar with the address you see on the back or sticker of just about any pre 1975 motorola consumer product (TV radio, phono.) "Motorola Inc. 9401 W. Grand Ave Franklin Park, IL"
This is the main assembly plant that I visited today, May 5, 2007. The plant is still up and standing but will soon be rehabed into "The Grand Lofts" as you can see in the sign up on the front office of the plant. So the building will not be demolished, just turned into living space. I suggest you visit thegrandlofts.com and you can read a brief history of what this building was all about. Franklin Park is still a very nice suburb, mostly industrial like most of Chicago. The plant on Grand Ave is only a couple miles west of chicago. In the beginning photos you see the Front main office of the plant. Next you see the NW sides of the plant. As the photo progress, I take photos as I walk south on Edington St. untill I get to the south side of the plant, then I walk east taking photos of the south side, water tower and then walk north on the east side of the plant, untill I finish at the north end. Take a good look at the water tower photos. You can see what once read "QUASAR" on the tower through the rust. You can tell it was even painted over at one time too. Throughout all this photo shooting, I did not see the motorola logo or anything to do with motorola or quasar anywhere inside or outside of the building other than what you can see on the water tower. I went to an estate sale on Odell st. in chicago today which brought me close to the Motorola plant. I just happened to find a Box for a vintage Motorola quasar color TV in the basement. No TV, but the box was cool and took it. In the living room was a mid 80's quasar TV. I would be willing to bet that the people who lived in that home worked at the motorola plant. Heres the description for each of the 46 photos, Enjoy: Photo 1: Front View (North end) of Motorola Office at 9401 W. Grand Ave. photo 2: West side of office photo 3: SW side of office photo 4: NW side of plant. (The office is attached and part of the plant) photo 5: Office and employee enterance, NW side of plant photo 6: inside view through window at NW side. photo 7: west side of plant photo 8-12: Inside view of plant through auxillary door on west side. Each photo is a different view continuing to the south photo 13-14: SW side of plant photo 15: View looking NE photo 16: Inside view through SW enterance looking N. photo 17: South end, loading docks nearest the west photo 18: South end, loading docks, nearest the east photo 19-20: Inside view through loading dock overhead door. photo 21-22: Water Tower NE side photo 23: SE end of building photo 24: Water tower, west side photo 25: SE end of building photo 26: Water tower, SW end photo 27: Water tower, West end photo 28: Inside view of building through door window on SE end of plant photo 29: E side, looking SW photo 30-31: Mechanical Room, view through door on E side. photo 32: NE end of building photo 33: E view of office and plant photo 34: E end of office photo 35: NE end of plant photo 36: Parking, under office, looking to the west. photo 37: NE end of office photo 38-39: N end, front Main enterance photo 40: Sign in front of building, looking to the west photo 41: Intersection of Grand Ave+ Edington St looking NW. photo 42: NE end, looking SE off Edington St. photo 43: NW end at Grand and Edington st. photo 44: Grand and Edington looking E photo 45: Front of building photo 46: Front of building with a Motorola color TV box found at an estate sale just down the street from the plant! |
#2
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Doug -
Great pictures and a great story too. I've got a Motorola B/W console from the mid-1960's. It was interesting to see the building where it was built. Thanks! Jim |
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Great pictures Doug!
Can't you just imagine the assembly lines that were in that space cranking out all those TVs! Their history site says about the VT-71: "More than 100,000 units sold in one year" |
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Thanks for all the fine pix of the place where I used to work!
That building used to have a visible crack running diagonally across the upper south corner of the east side - and a corresponding crack through the floor in the men's room - I felt a little apprehensive using the last stall - but apparently it still hasn't fallen off. The water tower must have had the Quasar logo painted over a long time ago. When Matsushita bought out the Motorola consumer products division, they painted "Quasar" two or three times around the water tower - but the painters got the wrong orientation, and from the HQ building it looked like "sar Qua". They repainted it in a couple of days, just in time for the press party. |
#5
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My gawd. Someone who worked there is on this board. Somebody who actually worked in a tv factory. I hope they remove your head when you die, and save it in a jar like on futurerama. Oh to hear your memories!
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From Captain Video, 1/4/2007 "It seems that Italian people are very prone to preserve antique stuff." |
Audiokarma |
#6
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Who in the world is going to want to live there? I mean, is housing space so limited?
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http://www.stevehoffman.tv |
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I just drove by there on Friday morning, I never new it was where Motorola built there Quasar TVs. Motorola had a TV plant in my home town of Quincy, Ill that was open for all of maybe 4 years before it was closed when Quasar was sold off. Now parts of the factory there make up warehousing for local business and I think some Harris Broadcasting office space.
BTW, I almost went to go work for Panasonic next door to the building on Grand Ave, by the railroad tracks. It was Panasonics industrial unit that made pick and place circuit board assymblers. Looks like Panasonic had invested alot of money there before moving out. Now come to think about it i vaguely remember a Quasar wherehouse near the back of the complex. The nice thing about this remodel job is they aren't demolishing the building, like they did down the street on 25th and North Avenue where the old Zenith TV plant was. Its sad to think about all the manufacturing jobs that have disappeared around here over the past 10~20 years. - Mike
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Pioneer Elite M-91 C-91 M-72 F-91 PD-65 CT-91a DV-09 SP-99D Pioneer A-717 F-717 PD-7100 CT-S800 CT-S600 DSS-7 RT-701 PL-610 CT-F615 SX-1500TD SA-900 TX-900 Sony TC-640 Technics SL-D2 Teac A-4300SX KLH Model 17 Polk S-6 AR-4x DBX-224 Homepage www.elitebypioneer.com |
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The former Motorola facility in Quincy, is now a distribution warehouse for K-Mart, and there are a few businesses and if I recall correctly even a gourmet restaurant that occupy the office space. |
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Quote:
- Mike
__________________
Pioneer Elite M-91 C-91 M-72 F-91 PD-65 CT-91a DV-09 SP-99D Pioneer A-717 F-717 PD-7100 CT-S800 CT-S600 DSS-7 RT-701 PL-610 CT-F615 SX-1500TD SA-900 TX-900 Sony TC-640 Technics SL-D2 Teac A-4300SX KLH Model 17 Polk S-6 AR-4x DBX-224 Homepage www.elitebypioneer.com |
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Audiokarma |
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Quote:
- Mike
__________________
Pioneer Elite M-91 C-91 M-72 F-91 PD-65 CT-91a DV-09 SP-99D Pioneer A-717 F-717 PD-7100 CT-S800 CT-S600 DSS-7 RT-701 PL-610 CT-F615 SX-1500TD SA-900 TX-900 Sony TC-640 Technics SL-D2 Teac A-4300SX KLH Model 17 Polk S-6 AR-4x DBX-224 Homepage www.elitebypioneer.com |
#13
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Motorola had an older factory on 4545 Augusta Blvd. in Chicago, I assume they closed this plant when they moved to Franklin Park. I was there about a year ago and it was now a seating company. It's nice to see that it is still something related to manufacturing instead of lofts.
This was where my Motorola UHF converter was made. I belive this plant was used until the mid 1950s? If you are intersted, there is a picture of the factory in its present state on the second page of this thread: http://www.audiokarma.org/forums/showthread.php?t=82229 |
#14
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I must have one of the last Quasars made there......this is the one that I picked up from Captain Moody last December. It's (of course) the works-in-a-drawer. Stamp on the back says made in June 1975. There's also a sticker on the back that says Manufactured by Quasar with the same Franklin Park address.
It is model # WU 9182 LW-1 Works great, as Moody knows his stuff. Would upload a photo of it, but I'm not good at shrinking it down to size to fit the requirements. Those photos and descriptions were very interesting viewing, DRH. |
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Motorola Inc
While I was a senior in High School (1977), my electronics instructor arranged for two of us students to participate in a 2 day educators trade show in the Seattle area. I was one of two selected for the priviledge. We were only told that we would be paid for our services. The job turned out to be assembly of a Motorola educational kit color TV (works in a drawer) on the trade show floor, in full view of attendees. Apparently they saw the money that Heath, NRI, and others were making in the educational market and wanted to cash in.
We didn't get very far. The set was a combination of hand wired high voltage and power supply, with the "works" drawer being a seperate, mostly prewired, component. There were negative comments about our lack of progress when we got back to school. But we got paid, by being allowed to keep the tools that we used. I still have the tools. |
Audiokarma |
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