A Neighborhood of Wardway Homes - Part 4

As I was researching the origin of the neighborhoods of Wardway homes in Pontiac, Michigan, I discovered a connection between those houses and the General Motor's subsidiary Modern Housing Corporation. As I noted in that previous post, starting in 1919, Modern Housing Corporation was responsible for two major developments that provided worker housing for GM employees in Pontiac and Flint.

In Pontiac, most of the potential Wardway models have been located in two subdivisions that were platted in 1927, a number of years after the original Modern Housing Corporation development was completed. However, there were several Wardway houses that were located on lots in the original plat for the Modern Housing Corporation development. Is it possible that the Modern Housing Corporation used Wardway kits to fill in vacant lots in the original development in addition to the Wardway homes found in the subdivisions platted in 1927?

The idea that the Modern Housing Corporation may have been using Wardway homes as infill in the existing development led kit house researcher Nigel Tate to take a look around Modern Housing Corporation's other large development - the Civic Park development in Flint, Michigan. Armed with some examples of possible Wardway homes from the Pontiac development, Nigel started looking around the Civic Park area of Flint and quickly started finding Wardway homes. Here are some examples of Wardway models that Nigel found in Flint.

Wardway Avalon - Flint, Michigan
Image courtesy of Google Maps

Wardway Dover - Flint, Michigan

Image courtesy of Google Maps

Wardway Trenton - Flint, Michigan

Image courtesy of Google Maps

To date, Nigel has found almost 40 possible Wardway houses in and around the Civic Park development. This include several examples of models that I found in Pontiac that don't match any known Wardway models but were on the same street as known Wardway models. Nigel's discoveries in Flint add credence to the idea that the Modern Housing Corporation was responsible for the neighborhoods of Wardway homes in Pontiac. Likewise, it strongly suggests that Wardway homes were used to infill lots in the existing Modern Housing Corporation developments in Flint and Pontiac. We're still working on documenting the connection between the Modern Housing Corporation and the Wardway homes. But Nigel's work has helped us take a big step forward in establishing that connection. Thanks Nigel!