Detroit: Where life is worth living - Part 3

Detroit--Where Life is Worth Living - Part 3

Commerce

In 1915, the Detroit Convention and Tourists' Bureau put out a lovely brochure touting the many highlights of the city. Part of the brochure covered industry.

Did you know that in 1915, Detroit was #1 in the United States in the production of:

• Automobiles (okay, you knew that one)
• Automotive accessories
• Stoves
• Varnish
• Paint
• Adding machines
• Pharmaceutical supplies
• Soda
• Chairs
• Overalls
• Aluminum castings
• Pins! (Take that, other cities with pin production!)

Other interesting business facts of Detroit in 1914: (Interesting to me anyway)

• Thirty different manufacturers in the city had annual production of over $1,000,000
• Forty different businesses in Detroit employed more than 1,000 people, eight of them had more than 3,000 employees, and two had more than 15,000 employees
• 85,376,705 tons of freight with a value of $927,191,061 was shipped on the Detroit River—more than that of New York, London, and Hong Kong combined
• $28,000,000 was spent on new building construction
• Industrial employees in Detroit increased from 46,372 in 1900 to 156,687 in 1914

Okay, enough with the stats—suffice it to say that Detroit was a city on the move!