The Ford Motor Company was just two years old when, on January 1, 1906, it opened a sales and service branch at 318-20 E 11th Street. Cars were shipped from the Highland Park plant fully assembled (except for the wheels and top), with four in a standard railroad box car, unloaded in the West Bottoms, and then driven to the sales branch.

In 1908, Ford moved to a larger building at 1608 Grand Avenue. 50 new Fords were sold in Kansas City in 1909, the first full year for the Model T.

Also in 1909, Ford announced that Kansas City had been selected as the site for the company’s first branch assembly plant outside the Detroit area. Albert Kahn, foremost among industrial architects, designed a one-story building (at 1025 Winchester Avenue in Sheffield adjacent to railroad tracks and the Blue River) to serve as office, stock, and repair shop. It was designed to be readily expandable.

Production began at the Winchester Plant in the spring of 1912.

The need for branch production facilities was a matter of transportation efficiency. Whereas only three completed Model Ts fit in a standard 40-foot boxcar, that same boxcar could haul the unassembled parts for eight. Men armed with “but a handful of wrenches” began putting together Model Ts on wooden sawhorses, at the rate of 7 to 25 per day. After assembly, cars were started and driven downtown for delivery to customers.

By 1913, production was up to 60 cars per day. The work week was ten hours a day, six days a week. Wages were 24 cents an hour. After Henry Ford announced workers would receive $5 for an eight hour work day, great numbers of men hoping for jobs began standing all day everyday across the street in Sheffield Park, waiting to be called for work.

The Winchester Plant expanded greatly between 1914 and 1924. Two more floors were added to the original “Building A” with body, paint, and upholstery shops and a hydraulic lift to lower car bodies through a hole in the second floor onto the first floor chassis line. In 1916, “Building B” was added. In 1917, the Power Plant, with its two still-visible smoke stacks labeled “Ford,” was completed.

Changes took place to the line as well. In 1914, a continuous production line, about 75 feet long, was set up, increasing daily output by 10 to 14 cars. In 1922, the first automatic conveyor was started. The first powered tools were used in 1924.

In May 1927, Ford announced the end of Model T production. There were no new Fords for the better part of a year. H. C. Doss, manager of the Kansas City Branch, travelled 30,000 miles visiting dealers, keeping them “sold on Ford.” He lost not a single dealer due to there being no new cars.

On Friday, December 2, 1927, the company unveiled the new Ford everywhere at once. A crowd gathered outside the Kansas City Convention Center and even broke through the doors before it was time to open. Over a two-day period, 108,000 people came and viewed the display of six of the new Fords, called the Model “A” to signify the new beginning for the company. By Monday, 2,250 orders just here in Kansas City had been placed.

At 3 p.m. on January 27, 1928, production of the Model A began at the Kansas City Winchester Plant. Over the next four years, four million Model As would be made, including 144,910 here in Kansas City.

By 1935, almost 4,000 workers of the Winchester Plant (with an annual payroll of $3.5 million) were turning out 525 units a day, supplying a territory of over 300 dealers across 16 states.

[With appreciation to the Missouri Valley Special Collections of the Kansas City Public Library and the Henry Ford Museum for photographs and information]

Image Top Left:
1906 Ford lineup – Though investors loved the big, expensive Model K, Henry Ford himself preferred the rugged little Model N, forerunner to the T. Note: Kansas City is listed last at the bottom of the ad, as Ford’s newest (in 1906) sales and service branch.

Image Left #2:
The Ford Kansas City Branch Assembly Plant, 1025 Winchester Avenue in Sheffield, after the second and third floors were added in 1914.

Image Left #3:
Ford employees at the Winchester Plant – An early employee said, “There was no form to fill out. Applicants would show up at the plant and be told they were hired.” In the earliest days of the plant, complete Model Ts were sent in crates by rail from the Highland Park Plant in Michigan. Men armed with “but a handful of wrenches” assembled Model Ts on wooden sawhorses at the rate of up to 25 per day. Assemblers might be called from the plant to go instruct new Ford owners on vehicle operation. After an hour or two of driving lessons, new drivers were then taken to city hall to get their licenses.

Image Left #4:
The 20 millionth Ford, a 1931 Model A slant-windshield sedan, at the Liberty Memorial during a nation-wide tour.

Image Right (In the Green):
The smokestacks of the power plant can still be seen today.

Image Bottom Left:
The Winchester Plant in 1926, after all expansions were completed. Note the smokestacks of the power plant built in 1917, and Sheffield Park where men looking for jobs would stand and wait, especially after Ford instituted the $5 day.

Image Top Middle:
A Ford Model K in front of the sales and service branch at 318-20 E 11th Street. A Model K drove from Oklahoma City to Kansas City, 428 miles in 26 hours. Despite the weather and dismal road conditions (mud over the hubs, in some places), the car made it through without a repair.

Image Top Right:
In the earliest days of the plant, complete Model Ts were sent in crates by rail from the Highland Park Plant in Michigan.

Image Middle Bottom:
Men armed with “but a handful of wrenches” assembled Model Ts on wooden sawhorses at the rate of up to 25 per day. Assemblers might be called from the plant to go instruct new Ford owners on vehicle operation. After an hour or two of driving lessons, new drivers were then taken to city hall to get their licenses.