General Motors Training Center At 5143 Richmond Ave.

[Materene]

Would any members know what happened to the old GM Training Center on Richmond Ave, there was a Fred Astaire Dance Studio across the street in a large shopping center.   I have no idea when it finally closed but it was open until the 80s although at that time it had been reduced to one class rather than all of the divisions having a separate class room.  As I remember it was very near the intersection of the freeway. 

[cowboybud]

It was next to the apartments behind what is now Best Buy/World Market, right? It's now either an empty lot or office building, depending on where exactly it was.

[Materene]

I am pretty certain this is the property of what was once the GM training center for Houston.  That long driveway coming off Richmond ave is a dead give a way simply because that was how it was laid out and each division class room had a roll up door so the drive way serviced the entire complex.  The main building was actually on that grassy area that is all grown over.   I remember just coming out the drive and turning right to hit the freeway to head North and this photo is looking due north.   Everything I knew of my home town is gone now, even the Buick Dealership I was working at while going here to the center is gone with another building occupying the space.  All my schools have been razed and new ones built on the same properties.   There was no divider there on Richmond as I remember but it has been almost 47 years so I might be wrong and there would have been no trees at that time for sure.   My Instructor was a Buick engineer retired and I specifically remember going out to the ship channel where all the Opel imports were stored and having to jack up 250 cars and replace one stinking motor mount on the driver side before they could be sold  ;0(  and it was cold out there too !

[IronTiger]

On 12/17/2016 at 11:34 PM, Materene said:

I am pretty certain this is the property of what was once the GM training center for Houston.  That long driveway coming off Richmond ave is a dead give a way simply because that was how it was laid out and each division class room had a roll up door so the drive way serviced the entire complex.  The main building was actually on that grassy area that is all grown over.   I remember just coming out the drive and turning right to hit the freeway to head North and this photo is looking due north.   Everything I knew of my home town is gone now, even the Buick Dealership I was working at while going here to the center is gone with another building occupying the space.  All my schools have been razed and new ones built on the same properties.   There was no divider there on Richmond as I remember but it has been almost 47 years so I might be wrong and there would have been no trees at that time for sure.   My Instructor was a Buick engineer retired and I specifically remember going out to the ship channel where all the Opel imports were stored and having to jack up 250 cars and replace one stinking motor mount on the driver side before they could be sold  ;0(  and it was cold out there too !

There were two buildings on that lot. The smaller building in the grassy area facing Richmond (closer to the shopping center) was demolished between the late 1970s and the late 1980s. The larger building sat flush on the corner of McCue and Richmond and still had cars in the parking lot (meaning it was either not the building or was occupied past the mid-1980s), and was demolished by 1995.

 

I might be able to pull up something via newspaper archives.

Edited December 19, 2016 by IronTiger

[Materene]

I really can't remember if there was a smaller building on that eastern grass plot, to enter the Training center you would park in front and enter thru front doors to walk down a long hall that had a the class rooms separated.  To the right nearer the entrance was a very large cafeteria area that was every bit as large as a regular middle school.   In 70 there was not a lot going on at the center as I recall, I'm sure they may have scheduled division classes as they had instructors available for each.  I actually ran into another engineer 30 years later here in La who had personally known the instructor I had in 70.   Things changed drastically in the 80s with divisions starting to share components so they naturally down sized training to only two or three divisions or less.  It would be nice to see a photo of the original building as it appeared, also the old Al Parker Buick downtown on Milam, no photos of it to be seen anywhere.   I know for a fact that the day after Mrs Parker had died her son sold the dealership which was then located on I-10 and the Mercury dealership owner purchased it and all the property it was located on.   In 2005  just a couple of the old people I had worked with were still working there at the new dealer.  It was a super good place to work for in the early years when Mr Parker was alive and I suspect it remained the same after his son took over upon his death.  Thanks for your information

[Highrise Tower]

Found the address. 

There are several websites with old, black and white, photographs of different Houston General Motors buildings.  I'm sure GM had 10? buildings in all of Houston, so picking out the correct, or actual, photograph might be hard.

Ladies, learn what makes that jalopy run

A course in “Cars – What makes them run?”, designed to help the average business woman or housewife determine what repairs her car needs, is being offered by the Cora Root Peden Y.M.C.A. On three consecutive Thursday nights, 7:30 to 9:30, beginning October 8.

The first and last sessions will be held at the DeMontrond Buick Co., 2525 Kirby Drive at Westheimer, and the second session will be held at the General Motors Training Center, 5143 Richmond Ave. H.J. Fossier and H.D. Trotter of Demontrond service personnel will direct the series.