General Motors
General Motors Company (GM) is an American Multinational corporation, multinational Automotive industry, automotive manufacturing company headquartered in Detroit, Michigan, United States. The company is most known for owning and manufacturing f ...
factory in
Framingham, Massachusetts
Framingham () is a city in the Commonwealth (U.S. state), Commonwealth of Massachusetts, United States. Incorporated in 1700, it is located in Middlesex County, Massachusetts, Middlesex County and the MetroWest subregion of the Greater Boston ...
which opened in 1947.
History and models
The plant was built on the location of Framingham Airport, and ground was broken in 1945. The plant cost $12 million ($ in dollars ) and was one of three new plants that year. At one point, the Framingham Assembly plant was one of the largest automotive manufacturing plants in the United States, employing over 5,000 workers from Massachusetts, Rhode Island, and New Hampshire.
The first vehicle, produced on 26 February 1948, was a
Buick
Buick () is a division (business), division of the Automotive industry in the United States, American automobile manufacturer General Motors (GM). Started by automotive pioneer David Dunbar Buick in 1899, it was among the first American automobil ...
, with 23,388 more produced that first year. The factory was used by "BOP" (Buick,
Oldsmobile
Oldsmobile (formally the Oldsmobile Division of General Motors) was a brand of American automobiles, produced for most of its existence by General Motors. Originally established as "Olds Motor Vehicle Company" by Ransom E. Olds in 1897, it produc ...
,
Pontiac Pontiac most often refers to:
* Pontiac (Odawa leader) ( – 1769), Native American war chief
*Pontiac (automobile), a former General Motors brand
Pontiac may also refer to:
Places and jurisdictions Canada
* Pontiac, Quebec, a municipality
** Apo ...
) and was under the management of GM's newly created Buick-Oldsmobile-Pontiac Assembly Division created in 1945. The factory had produced 697,574 cars by 1959. In August of that year, it became part of
Fisher Body
Fisher Body was an automobile coachbuilder founded as the Fisher Body Company by Frederic and Charles Fisher in 1908 in Detroit, Michigan when they absorbed a fledgling autobody maker. By 1916 the concern had grown into one of the world's large ...
, producing
Chevrolet
Chevrolet ( ) is an American automobile division of the manufacturer General Motors (GM). In North America, Chevrolet produces and sells a wide range of vehicles, from subcompact automobiles to medium-duty commercial trucks. Due to the promi ...
, Pontiac, and Oldsmobile cars.
The factory was re-purposed again in May, 1968, changing from separate Fisher Body and Chevrolet Division operations to a combined operation under the new GM Assembly Division, to produce the
Chevrolet Chevelle
The Chevrolet Chevelle is a Mid-size car, mid-sized automobile that was produced by the Chevrolet division of General Motors (GM) in three generations for the 1964 to 1977 model years. Part of the GM GM A platform, A-body platform, the Chevelle ...
Pontiac GTO
The Pontiac GTO is a front-engine, rear-drive, two-door, and four-passenger automobile manufactured and marketed by the Pontiac (automobile), Pontiac division of General Motors over four generations from 1963 until 1974 in the United States &m ...
was added in 1969. The
Buick Skylark
The Buick Skylark is a passenger car formerly produced by Buick. The model was made in six production runs, during 46 years, over which the car's design varied dramatically due to changing technology, tastes, and new standards implemented over t ...
and
Oldsmobile Cutlass
The Oldsmobile Cutlass was a series of automobiles produced by General Motors' Oldsmobile division between 1961 and 1999. At its introduction, the Cutlass was Oldsmobile's entry-level model; it began as a unibody compact car, but saw its greatest ...
were added in 1970. In 1981, the
Chevrolet Celebrity
The Chevrolet Celebrity is a front-drive, Mid-size car, mid-size passenger car line, manufactured and marketed by Chevrolet for model years 1982–1990, over a single generation.
Marking the transition of the Mid-size car, mid-size Chevrolet ...
and
Pontiac 6000
The Pontiac 6000 is a mid-size automobile manufactured and marketed by Pontiac from the 1982 to 1991 model years. As Pontiac transitioned to a numeric model nomenclature in the early 1980s, the 6000 replaced the LeMans as the mid-size Pontiac, s ...
were produced, with the
Oldsmobile Cutlass Ciera
The Oldsmobile Cutlass Ciera is a mid-size car manufactured and marketed for model years 1982–1996 by the Oldsmobile Division of General Motors — over a single generation. Body styles included a 2-door coupe, 4-door sedan, and the 4-d ...
added for the 1983 model year.
Closure
The Framingham location was the center of several contentious tug-of-wars between Governor
Michael Dukakis
Michael Stanley Dukakis ( ; born November 3, 1933) is an American politician and lawyer who served as governor of Massachusetts from 1975 to 1979 and from 1983 to 1991. He is the longest-serving governor in Massachusetts history and only the s ...
and local politician Anthony M. Colonna. After the town refused to sell General Motors a , town-owned piece of property GM desired for the construction of a new paint and plastics facility, Dukakis used the state's power of
eminent domain
Eminent domain, also known as land acquisition, compulsory purchase, resumption, resumption/compulsory acquisition, or expropriation, is the compulsory acquisition of private property for public use. It does not include the power to take and t ...
to take the property from the town and sell it to GM so the company could construct the $224 million facility ($ in dollars ). Colona, head of the town department public works and a powerful local politician, had desired a new, unified DPW facility to be constructed on the site. After the taking, state officials and executives at GM claimed that Colonna used his political influence in the community to delay the company's expansion of the facility and drum up support against the company.
When the facility was closed, GM stated that it was due primarily to a slowdown in the economy as well as the relatively small size of the facility. However, GM spokesperson Mark Leddy stated that local officials in Framingham were also partially to blame, declaring "You look at your labor climate, your relationship with the community and the quality of product being built at the plant" when explaining why the company chose to shutter the unit.
The plant was idled on October 4, 1982, with a single shift recalled on March 14, 1983. The second shift started again on December 12, 1983. The factory was closed permanently on August 1, 1989.
Current use
The facility is now the location of an ADESA automobile, truck, and boat warehouse and live auction site. The company claims that the facility is the largest indoor auction house in the world, capable of housing 10,000 autos and 4,000 people.
Framingham Assembly was located just South of downtown Framingham at Loring Drive and Western Avenue. The address of the ADESA auction site is 63 Western Ave.
A small landfill formerly used by General Motors at the site still exists and is part of the "Old GM", the leftover portions of the company after the 2009 bankruptcy. The administrative trust overseeing the former corporate assets has the property up for sale as of June 2012, but does not expect a buyer due to the nature of the facility.