Center Tool & Machine Co Mill?

Subject: RE: Center Tool & Machine Company History
Hello Chris,

I had the opportunity to visit with one of our longtime residents who has been in the metals business in Flint. His grandfather started the business and what I learned was that many machine shops received Federal contracts during WWII. Some of these were given directly to the smaller shops and in other cases GM farmed out some of the work they could not get done. Due to the location of the Center Tool, directly across the street from Chevy in the Hole, it would seem very likely that they would have been working with Chevy during the War. As you may recall, Jane noted that she could not find the name of the Center Tool Company in the 1945 City Directory. According to this contact he noted that when WWII ended all the contracts were ended abruptly and many of the smaller shops simply could not survive until additional work came along. In the case of this gentleman’s grandfathers business, Bruce informed me that his grandfather just about lost his shop but was able to hook up with American Flyer and made metal wheels and axles for the toy trains until more substantial work came along a year or two after the War. Bruce is contacting a couple of additional old timers that he knows who now live in Florida to see if they might have a recollection of the company. More may be on the way.

Best regards.

Tim

Tim Shickles
Director, Sloan Museum & Longway Planetarium

Click to expand...

Hello Chris,

It has been a while but I have one volunteer who just loves to dig into stories of long gone companies. A few weeks ago I mentioned to him that I had been working on a company, Center Tool, and had sent only partial information to you. This volunteer, Bob, delivered to me a bit more information to me late last week so I thought I had better pass it along to you if you still have interest. Bob found the company located at 1722 Glenwood Ave. in Flint in 1941. This would place the business right next store to Chevy in the Hole as the address is at the corner of Glenwood and Chevrolet Ave. If you check Mapquest on your computer and plug in the address you will see the location of the business. Center Tool & Machine Co was run by George F Van Paris and Don H Dawson. They did machining, dies, tools, fixtures, stampings, experimentals, and model work. In the 1937 directory Bob was able to locate George Van Paris as a Foreman at A.G. Redmond in Owosso, MI. (just down the road about 20 miles west of Flint). Don Dawson was listed in the 1937 directory as a Diemaker at AC Spark Plug in Flint.

In 1943-45 Center Tool moved to 1409 N. Saginaw. This would have put the business about 10 blocks from Buick manufacturing plant.
Once again Bob could only find the company in business for 1938 to 1945. According to Bob it looks as if the last year or two George and Don might have been working out of the same building that Genesee Motor Sales was located in on N. Saginaw. This was a Cadillac- Pontiac dealership, and with no new cars to sell during WWII Center Tool may have been renting space from the dealership.

That is all that there is on Center Tool. I suspect Bob will have some more for me one of these days if there is anything else to uncover. He is always bringing me some new tidbit of info on research work he is digging into.

I hope you are well.

Best regards.

Tim



Tim Shickles
Director, Sloan Museum & Longway Planetarium

Click to expand...

Sirapnav said:

Center Tool ended up in Cheboygan Michigan around 1945,46. Made mainly valve stem retainers for GM till around late 80's. Closed due to contaminated heat treating water showing up in waste water treatment plant. George was my grandfather. I worked there from 1973 to 1976.

Click to expand...

4GSR said:

So, did your grandfather make the little mill back in history that you know of?

Click to expand...