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Column for December 21, 2004
On November 29, 2003, a part of
downtown Flint’s past officially returned to become part of Flint’s
present and future when the replicated Flint Vehicle City arches were dedicated
and lit for the first time. The arches are reminders of Flint’s glorious
past as "The Vehicle City" as the city faces an uncertain future. The vehicles which were made in Flint when the original arches were built were horse-drawn carriages. The leading maker of horse-drawn carriages in Flint was the Durant-Dort Carriage Company which was co-founded by William C. Durant and J. Dallas Dort and was in business from 1886 to 1917. Both men would also start companies which made horseless carriages. Dort founded the Dort Motor Car Company which was in business from 1915 to 1923. Dort Highway was named in his honor. Durant took over the then-small Buick Motor Company in 1904 and made it the leading motorcar company in 1908, the year that Durant founded Buick’s parent company General Motors Corporation.
The first arches were erected in 1899 and built by Genesee Iron Works. The arches were each fitted with 50 light bulbs which were illuminated at night. The arches replaced gas lighting. To celebrate Flint’s Golden Jubilee in 1905, an additional arch was erected near the point where Saginaw Street and Detroit Street (now M.L. King Ave.) split off north of the bridge over the Flint River. This arch was topped off by an illuminated sign saying "FLINT VEHICLE CITY". For the Christmas holiday season, the regular light bulbs were replaced by multicolored light bulbs. This year, that tradition returned as for this holiday season the multicolored light bulbs are back.
There are seven arches over Saginaw
Street from Court Street to north of the Flint River bridge where the "Vehicle
City" arch stands. The pictures I’m showing depict how the original
arches looked then and how the replicated arches look now at the approximate
locations of where the pictures were taken. In 1919, the Flint City Council
ordered the arches taken down and replaced by boulevard lighting. A plan
to move the arches to Flint’s major entry points never materialized
so the arches were scraped. The new arches are part of a series of downtown Flint beautification projects and was paid for by private funds. Other beautification projects include new sidewalks and the rebuilding of Saginaw Street between Court Street and the Flint River with the paving bricks retained.
There are several links related to the Flint Vehicle City arches. The links include the following: The official web site for the Flint arches project at: http://www.flintarches.com This Flint Public Library link shows the arches back then: http://www.flint.lib.mi.us/gallery/saginawstreet/index.html This Flint Public Library link shows today’s arches: http://www.flint.lib.mi.us/gallery/arches/index.html Of course, you can find more links using your favorite search engine. My next planned column is about a very useful landmark which has been a part of downtown Flint for almost 50 years and is also a corporate symbol. One hint is that it’s in the background of two of the photos here.
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