Auto industry / Business & brands
William C. Durant
1861–1947 · founder of General Motors, co-founder of Chevrolet
Flint carriage king who founded General Motors, co-founded Chevrolet in Detroit and ordered the giant GM headquarters on West Grand Boulevard.
- Born
Boston, Massachusetts- Died
New York City, New York
aged 85- Birth name
- William Crapo Durant
- Also known as
- Billy Durant
- Detroit years
- 1908–1920
01 / The Detroit story
The Detroit story
Raised in Flint, Durant built the Durant-Dort Carriage Company into the country's largest maker of horse-drawn vehicles before taking over Buick in 1904. In 1908 he formed General Motors as a holding company and quickly bought Oldsmobile, Cadillac, Oakland (later Pontiac) and many suppliers. Bankers pushed him out in 1910, so he teamed with Louis Chevrolet, whose first car was designed in a Detroit workshop in 1911, and used Chevrolet's success to win back control of GM in 1916. In 1919 he ordered a permanent GM headquarters in Detroit's New Center; it was meant to carry his name, but by the time it was finished he had lost GM again, in 1920, and it opened as the General Motors Building. His later Durant Motors failed in the Depression, and he ended his career running a bowling alley in Flint. He died in New York in 1947.
Highlights
- Founded General Motors on September 16, 1908
- Co-founded the Chevrolet Motor Car Company in Detroit, 1911
- Regained control of GM in 1916, lost it for good in 1920
- Commissioned the General Motors Building (today Cadillac Place), built 1919–1923
02 / Their Detroit places
Their Detroit places 1
Where they lived, worked, performed and liked to hang out. Closed and demolished places stay here too, because they are part of the city's history.
Founded · 1919–1920
Cadillac Place (former General Motors Building)
The headquarters he ordered in 1919, first planned as the Durant Building; GM's home until 2001, now State of Michigan offices.