Address of St. Louis plant?

[Oliver B.]

Who knows the address of the St. Louis plant?

I'd like to look it up in google.maps, to see what there is now (and maybe drive by, when ever on a visit to StL).....

Regards
OLiver

[Tom H.]

Re: Address of St. Louis plant?

3809 Union Blvd. St. Louis MO.

Try this link.

http://maps.google.com/maps?f=q&hl=e...10815&t=k&om=1

[Oliver B.]

Re: Address of St. Louis plant?

Great - thanks!

Anybody knows what replaced the General's buildings there?

[Tom H.]

Re: Address of St. Louis plant?

I don't think any of the Corvette plant still exists. The area is now an industrial park. I think some of the old truck facility still stands. Not sure though.

[Oliver B.]

Re: Address of St. Louis plant?

Yes, not much to be learnt from the google.maps-page - nevertheless VERY interesting so see the place of the Corvette's birth!

[John D.]

Re: Address of St. Louis plant?

I drove by there about three years ago and the building on the corner of Union and Natural Bridge looked the same as in all the old pictures. I drove around the back (trespassing?) where the Corvette plant was and it was mostly gone. It looked like it was a cardboard recycling facility.

jd

[Bill W.]

Re: Address of St. Louis plant?

the Corvette plant is gone . It is a very bad neighborhood .

[Joe L.]

Re: Address of St. Louis plant?

I drove by there about three years ago and the building on the corner of Union and Natural Bridge looked the same as in all the old pictures. I drove around the back (trespassing?) where the Corvette plant was and it was mostly gone. It looked like it was a cardboard recycling facility.

jd

John and Oliver------


Yes, the site of the St. Louis Corvette plant is currently occupied by a Jefferson-Smurfitt paper plant. When looking at the Google map link Tom posted, it's the building with the black roof behind the site of the old main plant and abutting Natural Bridge Avenue. The Corvette plant, itself, was not actually located on Union Bl., although the main plant was and its address was also the Corvette plant's "official" address.

The Corvette plant's building was approximately on the "footprint" of the entire site of the current paper plant, including building and surrounding lot. The Corvette plant was a rather low-roof, rectangular building with the street-side wall very close to Natural Bridge Avenue. The fence line was just a few feet back of sidewalk and the building just a few feet inside the fence line.

Somewhere around here I have pictures I took of it in 1988. It was, of course, closed by then, but the building was still there and undisturbed. Externally at least, it didn't even look dilapidated at that time.

The main St. Louis plant building is still there as can be seen in the aerial photo. It's been long-since sold off by GM and it's now a "multi-use" industrial facility of some sort with several tenants. I just can't imagine how something like this can "work", but I guess it does.

[Tom K.]

Re: Address of St. Louis plant?

Until last April the Arrow Speed St. Louis Warehouse was located where the Corvette paint line was. They closed that warehouse. A friend of mine was the manager there.
Tom

[Oliver B.]

Re: Address of St. Louis plant?

Thank you for all your input - I find that VERY informative!

[Peter G.]

Re: Address of St. Louis plant?

I'm from St. Louis and I was fortunate enough to tour the plant when solid lifter engines were still on the option list. I might have been a kid, but I knew that sound = performance. The unions were terrible and from what I can remember, everyone including Chevrolet wanted to keep the Corvette plant in St. Louis. Chevrolet even offered to move all the employees to a new plant that they would build in the St. Louis area, but the union had very poor work quality and was difficult to negotiate with (sound familiar?) so Chevrolet made the decision to move the Corvette plant to Bowling Green Kentucky.

All of this was in the St. Louis newspapers and on television back then, so there was no secret about the union problems and the decision to move out of the area so as to leave to poor workers and bad attitudes behind. A few of the plant employees moved to Bowling Green and continued on with the new Corvette plant.

The local TV station even had a short story on a group of guys who rented an apartment in Bowling Green during the week and then they would drive home on the weekends back to St. Louis to be with their families. Their kids were in school, and they wanted them to graduate with their classmates. Those guys were real dedicated Corvette employees and dads!

Gene Jantzen Chevrolet was across the street where many new owners would pick up their brand new Corvettes that just rolled off the assembly line.

Pete

[Michael H.]

Re: Address of St. Louis plant?

3809 Union Blvd. St. Louis MO.

Try this link.

http://maps.google.com/maps?f=q&hl=e...10815&t=k&om=1

There was also a different address for the Corvette building that was actually on Natural Bridge st. (I have that address here somewhere)
There was a double set of RR tracks between Natural Bridge and the street side of the Corvette building.
The entrance was off of Natural Bridge.