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A Non-Geographical Region Car Club of the
Antique Automobile Club of America
Bill Flitcraft's 1948 Pontiac parked in front of the Wilmington, Delaware GM assembly plant office building. Photo was taken just a few weeks before the final phase of demolition at the plant was completed. His car was assembled in this plant in late 1947 or early '48.
Even before World War II officially ended automobile manufactures were looking to the future. By spring of 1945 the European conflict was all but finished and the surrender of the Axis powers was signed in May. Now the Allies could throw its full military weight at Japan. It would not be long before they too would capitulate.
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Auto plants quickly removed the war material' equipment and replaced it with machines that created car parts again. Although the 1946 models looked and drove a lot like the prewar models Americans didn't care. They eagerly put their names on waiting lists for the new cars. This meant auto manufactures needed to ramp up production in a hurry.
General Motors had made plans to expand before the war had ended. In fact, in this May 19th article published in the News Journal from Wilmington, Delaware they did indeed make a major announcement about that very fact.
From the Wilmington News Journal, Sat, Jan. 31, 1948
It is interesting to note that Wilmington is, and was at that time, the home of the DuPont Company which had strong ties with GM.
The Boxwood plant, as it came to be known, operated for fifty years as a car assembly plant by General Motors until 2009 and was finally demolished in the spring of 2019.
The site is now (2023) the home of an Amazon fulfillment center
Oakland
Pontiac
