1938: TERNSTEDT DIVISION OF GENERAL MOTORS TO MOVE INTO EWING TOWNSHIP

It was HUGE news back in 1938 when General Motors Corporation decided to build a HUGE factory on Parkway Avenue in Ewing Township to manufacturer hardware parts for their trucks and automobiles. With the mobilization effort on the part of the U.S. Government War Department back in the early WWII years, the plant was converted to the manufacture of the legendary Grumman Avenger torpedo bomber for the U.S.Navy.

1938: TERNSTEDT DIVISION OF GENERAL MOTORS

Here's the beginning of the end on one of the area's MAJOR employers. Back in 1938, Ewing Township was the site of what would be one of the most important factors in the industrial northeast. Starting out as the manufacturer of auto door handles and other General Motors automobile hardware, the company was transformed into a manufacturing facility for the United States Navy during World War II when the fabled Grumman TBF "Avenger" was made here along with another Avenger plant at Bloomfield, New Jersey.

There are few in my generation who don't know many of those local residents who worked at that incredible factory on Parkway Avenue in Ewing Township.

1937: EWING TOWNSHIP'S NEW GENERAL MOTORS TERNSTEDT FACTORY

What memories surround this post! When I began what turned out to be a dead end career choice as a bearing and power transmission employee back in the early 1950's, I made daily trips to "Ternstedt Division, General Motors Corp." Mr. Walt Lawyer was the buyer at the time, and he turned out to be a true friend. Earlier in my young years, the spectacle of a Grumman "Avenger" on a test run circling over our neighborhood for a return flight to the Ewing airfield will ever be in my databank of childhood memories. I remember how low those planes flew....so low one could actually see the pilot in the large "greenhouse" cockpit. As a long time worker in Ewing, I also remember the race to get out of the Ternstedt parking lot when the shifts were changing. Many were the times when I was on my way to the plant with an emergency delivery of bearings when I got caught up in the traffic jam. Oh, those memories!

A note from Tom:

In order to present this graphic to be legible within the confines of the standard computer monitor, this graphic has been completely re-formatted from the original Trenton Evening Times article.

Ralph Lucarella said...

I CAN RECALL THE OPENING OF GM TOM. IT CREATED A BIG CHANGE THROUGHOUT THE AREA WITH THEIR STARTING PAY OF .65 CENTS AN HOUR. MOST PEOPLE WERE EARNING MUCH LESS AT THEIR JOBS. MY COUSIN, JOE MILACCI WAS ONE OF THEIR EARLIEST WORKERS WITH A MANAGER'S POSITION IN THE SHIPPING DEPT. MY BROTHER LOU AND MANY OTHER OF MY FRIENDS WERE ALSO AMONG THE EARLY WORKERS. GM MADE A GREAT DENT IN THE UNEMPLOYMENT RANK. BEST REGARDS

Monday, May 09, 2011