Visit to Hilltop Road plant

[Multi-Volti]

Hello:

I'm confused...Hilltop Rd is the old building in St. Joe, on the Lake,
the one that was sold to Groupe Bull, then Packard Bell, then who knows
who.

Riverview Dr. in Benton Harbor was the last location I knew of for
Heath. THIS was the old Kmart building. You mentioned ghosts. Hilltop
has some weird things like a depression in the warehouse floor shaped
like a maple leaf...like someone saw one land in fresh cement and
carefully pressed it into the cement to leave a perfect print.

I have a brick corner or two that fell off the Hilltop Rd building...I
guess I truck backed into it or it happened spontaneously...I went into
work there one day and the pieces were in the parking lot, so I took a
couple for my 'Heath collection", in case anyone didn't think collecting
Heath parts was unusual enough.

Murray



Brian Wood wrote:
>
> Hi Gang,
>
> On my recent road trip from Colorado to Michigan, I stopped at the old
> Heathkit factory in St. Joseph. It was open, so I just walked in and started
> looking around and taking pictures. Eventually, the plant mgr, Gary Hall,
> stopped by and asked me what I was doing. I told him of my (and our) love
> for the Heath saga, and we had a great chat. He's been there since 1971, so
> he saw the glory days. Also ran into Wayne Sherrier (sp?) who has been there
> since about 1981.
>
> The plant currently has 18 tenants, and the entire northern half of the bldg
> is occupied by an auto parts company. Gary said they recently got $800K for
> renovation and are going to start redoing the outside as well as the inside.
> So it won't look like "our" Heathkit plant much longer.
>
> I must confess to feeling a sense of both awe and sadness as I walked
> around. There were lots of ghosts still haunting the halls. I could picture
> it teeming with activity as the latest SB series was designed, tested and
> shipped. All of the kits I had built over the years were made here. I could
> feel the sense of helplessness, as Zenith and other market forces reduced
> the once mighty company to 30 employees working in the back of an old K-Mart
> (no offense to those of you who are left).
>
> I'll post some of the pictures, after I convert them from 700K to about 20K
> for bandwidth.
>
> Brian Wood, W0DZ
>
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