Civic Park Historic District
In 1916, as a flood of new workers for Flint's automobile factories
caused housing shortages, the directors of Flint's Board of Commerce
formed the Civic Building Association. The association had built 133
houses on four hundred acres of farmland by December 1917, when a
slump in the automobile industry and World War I slowed
construction.
After the 1918 Armistice, General Motors Corporation agreed to
complete the project. The Dupont Corporation, General Motors'
controlling shareholder, organized the Modern House Corporation and
added 280 acres and constructed 950 homes in less than nine months.
At the peak of construction, Dupont employed forty-six hundred
people. Postwar house prices ranged from $3,500 to $8,000. A typical
home had five or six rooms, a slate roof, an open porch and a
basement. Curved streets, planned park areas and tree-lined
boulevards added to the attractiveness of the community.
Registered Site S0543
Erected 1982
Location: Welch and Brownell
Flint, Genesee County
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