Automotive historian Bob Casey shares five key reasons that Henry Ford’s Model T was revolutionary when it was introduced in 1908. This video was created as part of an exhibition installed at the Ford Piquette Avenue Plant in September 2017. For more info visit: http://www.fordpiquetteavenueplant.org
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Featuring: Bob Casey
Directed by: Donald Harrison
Camera: Joey Ostrander
Editing & Audio: David Camlin
Project Managers: Mary Seelhorst & Jason Jay Stevens
Produced by: 7 Cylinders Studio [https://7cylinders.com], in association with Flutter & Wow Museum Projects [http://flutterwow.com]
Extra Thanks: Nancy Darga, Norm Boltz, Barry Cogan, Aline Mauch
Extra Special Thanks: Steve Shotwell for the 1916 Model T in the driving sequence
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About the Ford Piquette Avenue Plant:
In 1997, the city of Detroit changed the zoning around the historic Ford plant. Detroit preservationist Jerald Mitchell suspected that bulldozers might not be far behind, so he got the Henry Ford Heritage Association involved to examine how they might save the building.
Three years later, a group of historians, preservationists, and Model T enthusiasts incorporated the Model T Automotive Heritage Complex as a nonprofit 501(c)(3) organization and purchased the building. When we first opened to the public as an historic site we were called the T-plex. Today, we operate as the Ford Piquette Avenue Plant.
We are dedicated to preserving the building and providing a unique experience of Detroit’s history. The plant now attracts visitors from around the world, bus tours, families, and scores of people attending public and private events from car shows to weddings.
We’re managed by a board of trustees and volunteer committees. In 2013, the board hired the site’s first executive director, Nancy Darga, former director of the MotorCities National Heritage Area.
The Ford Piquette Avenue Plant was declared a U.S. National Historic Landmark in 2006. It was added to the U.S. National Register of Historic Places in 2002 and listed as a Michigan State Historic Site in 2003.
