Broadway GE Campus Future Uncertain
GE looks to shed local operation
Spinoff part of larger plan; 265 jobs in limbo here
Link (Journal Gazette)
“General Electric Co. announced Thursday it is hoping to spin off its Consumer & Industrial business group, which includes the company’s Fort Wayne operations, instead of just its appliance business.”
[...]
“In Fort Wayne, the local plant at 1635 Broadway produces small motors for products such as golf carts and is the headquarters for the company’s Motors division, within GE’s Industrial group. Freeman said there were about 300 people working at the local plant in mid-May; the figure now stands at 265.
Wayne Nash, of the International Union of Electronic Workers-Communications Workers of America Local 901, said GE had more than 12,000 employees in Fort Wayne when he began working for the company in 1966. During its heyday before he started, Nash said he heard the company employed as many as 15,000 in Fort Wayne. According to GE’s Web site, the company has operated in Fort Wayne for more than 100 years, since at least 1902.”
“FORT WAYNE INDUSTRIES. GENERAL ELECTRIC CO. INDIANA SERVICE CORP. G.E. BROADWAY PLANT MARCH 7, 1945″
Image from Allen County Community Album
GE may spin off local plant
The move would idle some 265 workers at Broadway complex
Link (News-Sentinel)
“The huge GE complex near Broadway and Taylor employed more than 10,000 people in the 1940s, but has gradually downsized since to such a point that a local historic preservation group has included the Broadway campus and the iconic lighted “GE” sign on the roof among its list of endangered structures.”
[...]
“ARCH included GE’s Broadway campus on its “endangered” list after the 2003 demolition of one of the oldest buildings there. The West Central neighborhood hopes to preserve as much of the campus as possible for other uses should GE no longer need it, Young said.
GE’s history in Fort Wayne could be said to date back to 1881, with the founding of the Fort Wayne Electric Light Co. After several mergers and name changes, the company was taken over by GE in 1916, according to historian Michael Hawfield. “
More:
The future of the past is here with the GE decision (Fort Wayne Observed)
General Electric Plant News: There’s a Baseball Story Here! (Baseball in Fort Wayne)
Wow, that picture in 1945 speaks a thousand words. It truly is sad what we have become by letting the interests of companies like GM and BF Goodrich completely gut our cities and infrastructure. I was in the Auburn Cord museum a few weeks back, looking at automobile innovation where in the early 19th century they were weighing electric vs gas vs early ethanol vehicles. Isn’t it amazing how it is all coming around again with our outlook on energy, city planning, etc ? We are all trying to figure out how we can become more like we were 70+ years ago.
DaveC.