Built in 1936, the GM Stamping Plant, once located on the corner of Buchanan Avenue and 36th Street in Wyoming, was the company’s first stamping plant and was known as Plant No. 1. The plant occupied two million square feet on 92 acres and at its peek, employed more than 3,000 people. In 2007, it would ship 213,091 tons of steel, which is the equivalent of 83,000 GMC Suburbans.

The plant would be one of the causalities of the early 2000s recession that impacted the auto industry with the announcement made in 2007 that it would close. Seventy-four years after opening, in 2010, the last employees left, posing for a Grand Rapids Press photo in front of the plant’s sign. In 2011, the city had the plant demolished.

This image is from a colored photographic lantern slide labeled “general view of stamping division of General Motors.” The slide is part of a slideshow about the GM Grand Rapids Stamping plant that was used by the Grand Rapids Public Museum for educational purposes. The slide is part of the Grand Rapids Public Museum’s collection.