This is the 1913 Ford Motor Company plant, with matching 1916 addition to the south. This was Ford's first manufacturing facility west of the Mississippi River. Model-T Trucks were assembled there until WW I when the plant temporarily closed. The plant reopened in 1923, producing 150-160 cars a day, and employing many people in the surrounding neighborhoods. The plant turned out trucks, runabouts, coupes, touring cars and limousines. A railroad loading station was built on the south end of the plan. By the late 1920s the plan assembled 8,000 cars a week, employing more than 1000., Gates Rubber Company bought the building in 1945, after the Ford Plant closed and installed its hose division in the building. In 1980, the building was renovated and became the Gates Corporate headquarters. The building was sold by Gates Rubber in 1995, and is now offices. The 1913 building is designed by John Graham, a prominent architect for the Ford Motor Company, with the 1916 addition designed by Albert Kahn, America's preeminent early 20th century industrial architect. The history of this building is not well known, and it currently has no local, state or national designation.