For Sale, This Vivid Reminder of a Time When Fords Were "Built in Texas by Texans"

Horatio Alger story: Former U.S. Postmaster General, Ford VP of Assembly and Parts, CEO of Nissan USA and head of the Tennessee Valley Authority Marvin Runyon started working on the assembly line in this plant after graduating from Woodrow Wilson High in 1942.

TNANKS!! I remember when that place was alive. Not like you don't have enough to do, Robert, but I wonder who owns that vacated place now. I was just talking abotu it not too long ago, that it could be torn down and a retail-loft development could be there. From downtown to Buckner, we in East Dallas have NO viable retail shopping along I-30. Why not? I ask every City of Dallas politician and offiical at every meeting I attend. I never hear of any plans for that area, for the empty land along Ferguson-Lawnview.

If Lemmon Ave can have both a Lowe's and  Home Depot, Wal-Mart Jr is on Hall and 75, Target acrosss from it, why can't this part of Dalals?

Does anyone else see this potential? Think of the jobs for that area, the TAX DOLLARS coming in!

My Fort Worth grandfather owned a 1949 Ford. He sold it to my father in '63 or '64 and bought a new 1964 Fairlane 500.

I went on a couple of driving vacations with my grandparents in the 49 model. My grandmother would make a bed in the back seat for us kids to sleep on whilst motoring.

My dad also had a '61 Galaxie 500 and I'm almost certain it had the Made in Texas by Texans sticker on it. Regardless, I do remember seeing that sticker on numerous vehicles.

In 1949, My parents won a new Ford at a Denver church bazaar. It had been one of 48 specially built and painted Columbine Blue for the U.S. Governors' Conference which was held in Colorado Springs that year. The day the car arrived in front of our house, Dad went out and looked it over. Then he took out his pocket knife and carefully scraped the "Built in Texas by Texans" sticker off the back windshield.  Dad had been born in Texas, son of a Texas-born mother. But he had been raised in Colorado and had watched as rich Texans arrived and bought up the land around his favorite fishing spots, then posted "No Trespassing" signs. He despised everything Texan ever after. Except, of course, that Ford, which he always proclaimed was the best car he ever owned.     

DPL has a nice image of a Ford worker putting the made in texas by texans sticker on a windscreen. I'll try to send a link

Ask Big Hersch what that plant was producing towards the end of its run. The johan family truckster --- a 1969 Ford Galaxy 500 with the 390 engine, vinyl bench seats, and a door panel I bit a hole in when I was a bored five-year-old on a road trip --- was one of the last to roll off the line at the old East Grand plant. At least that's what my Pops told me, if I remember correctly.

Also ask Hersch if I'm correct in my belief that the red hot Ford Mustang was never assembled at the Dallas plant.