Site of Chevrolet Plant

Location: Lot bounded by W. 8th Street, S. Perkins Avenue, W. 2nd Street, and S. Elliot Street.

Year Opened: 1919 (Muncie Products Company), 1935 (Chevrolet-Muncie)

Current Use: Demolished, Planned site of solar farm

The Muncie Chevrolet Plant had its beginnings in 1919 when General Motors purchased the T. W. Warner Company’s plant and ran it for many years under the name of “Muncie Products Company.”[1] After a brief period of closure during the Great Depression, the plant re-opened in 1935 under the name of “Chevrolet-Muncie.”[2] The plant went through numerous expansions and modernizations over the course of its lifetime including a major expansion in the 1960s.[3] The plant was mainly used to build transmissions for various Chevrolet trucks and passenger cars.[4] The plant was a major employer in the Avondale neighborhood, with employment peaking at over 3,400 people in the late 1970s.[5] New Venture Gear, run jointly by General Motors and Chrysler, operated out of the plant from 1990 to 2002 when it became General Motors. With deindustrialization, employment gradually decreased and there were 380 employees remaining when the plant closed in 2006.[6] The last surviving portion of the factory, a smokestack emblazoned with the word “Chevrolet,” was demolished in 2008.[7] Currently, there are a few residential buildings on the southern portion of the property and the City of Muncie hopes to build a solar farm on the remaining land.[8]

[1] “Forerunner of Muncie-Chevrolet Plant.” The Star Press, Nov. 23, 1954.

[2] Ibid.

[3] “Building Permit for Chevy Issued,” The Star Press, March 16, 1965.

[4] Welcome to Chevrolet-Muncie open house pamphlet and tour map, November 10, 1961, Muncie Chevrolet Plant Photographs Collection, Muncie, Indiana Chevrolet Motor Company photographs, Ball State University Library, Archives and Special Collections, https://dmr.bsu.edu/digital/collection/ChevyPlant/id/60/rec/342.

[5] “11:15 a.m.: Smokestack demolition marks end of Chevy era in Muncie.” Herald Bulletin, January 31, 2008, https://www.heraldbulletin.com/news/local_news/11-15-a-m-smokestack-demolition-marks-end-of-chevy-era-in-muncie/article_54f3eb95-4dd3-57ba-beb8-f97f9e0c88e4.html.

[6] Ibid.

[7] Ibid.

[8] Jordan Bratt, “History of the Former Chevy Site,” SMART City Muncie, 2022, https://digitalresearch.bsu.edu/immersive-learning-showcase-spring-2022/exhibits/show/smart-city-muncie/history-of-the-former-chevy-si#:~:text=At%20its%20peak%2C%20it%20employed,Demolition%20was%20completed%20in%202009.