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Willys-Overland Main Page
Willys-Overland War Production Record
Willy
Jeep
Willys-Overland
Motors in World War Two
1903-1952
Rest in Peace
Plant Photos
An early line drawing of the original plant in
the 1890's when it was Cleveland Cycles. Central Avenue runs
east-west and the orientation of this drawing is looking south-west.
Drawing courtesy of Ron Szymanski.
Here we are looking north-west along Central
Avenue at Cleveland Cycles also on the sign. Photo
courtesy of Ron Szymanski.
This is a later 1910 photo of Plant 1.
See the photo of this as it existed in 2012 at the bottom of the page.
It was on a train trip from Indianapolis to Detroit in 1908 that John
Willys saw this plant while on the , which was vacant at the time, which
resulted in its purchase. The Overland car making operation was then
moved from Indianapolis to Toledo. Previous to the Willys purchase
this plant had been making Pope-Toledo automobiles but the operation went
under during the 1907 market crash. In 1912 the company was renamed
Willys-Overland. Photo courtesy of Ron Szymanski.
An overhead drawing after the plant had been
built up for the most part by 1914. It was larger in size at the
time than the Ford Highland Park operation. This would have been the
configuration during WWII. Drawing courtesy of Ron Szymanski.
One can assume the powerhouse and smoke stacks were previous to 1912 when
John Willys added his name to the company. Photo courtesy of Ron
Szymanski.
This probably a post WWII photo looking south but previous to 1973 when
the seven story office building in the foreground was imploded.
However, it for the most part represents the plant configuration during
WWII. This is a photo of a photo taken in Ron Szymanski's basement.
Photo courtesy of Ron Szymanski.
This is definitely post WWII because I-75 is
to the west of the plant. Photo courtesy of Ron Szymanski.
The east end of Plant 1 looking east on
Central was still standing in January of 2012.
The portion on the left was the original
office building on Central.
One Smoke Stack still exists.
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