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NewsBusinessLooking back at the Ford Motor Company plant in Milpitas

Looking back at the Ford Motor Company plant in Milpitas

It was 1955 when the Ford Motor Company plant first opened in Milpitas. This move set the stage for a total transformation in town, bringing forth a new era of housing and retail development to replace the once-prominent hay fields, swamplands, and walnut trees that made up Milpitas. 

The Ford plant closed down on May 20, 1983. This week marks the 35th anniversary of its closing.

To honor the company that played a role in accelerating Milpitas’ early growth, we’re sharing some photos that have never been seen before, mostly of Ford’s very last day of operations. We also had the opportunity to interview two former Ford employees.

One of them is named Archie LaBine, who will be turning 90 this coming July.

When he got out of the service in 1953, LaBine starting working for Ford Motor Company, which was located in Richmond, California, at the time. He was willing to learn anything, and very quickly started up on the assembly line, putting in springs, shocks, and break lights. 

 

Archie LaBine

 

When the plant announced it was closing up shop in Richmond, and moving to Milpitas, LaBine came out to have a look at the tiny town that would be his new home. “To tell you the truth, the first time I saw it, I liked it here,” said LaBine. “We came down and looked at the area where they were going to build all the houses, and I just knew. I knew this was the place we’d always be.” 

Ford’s move to Milpitas propelled a new tract of houses to be built in the Sunnyhills neighborhood, where LaBine still continues to reside, after all these years. Seventy-three houses were built on that tract, and LaBine’s was one of the very first. 

“Every single house in that tract had a Ford worker in it,” said LaBine. “If we ever needed to have a meeting or something, we’d just walk over to somebody’s house. There were no buildings or areas to meet in at that time. After the Sunnyhills neighborhood was built, Milford Village was the second one. That was put in by the old Ayer High School.”

Ben Gross, who was part of the leadership of the United Auto Workers Local 560, was instrumental in ensuring that all Ford workers were treated fairly and well taken care of when they moved from Richmond to Milpitas. Gross, too, had started working at Richmond’s Ford plant after serving in the army. He soon became the first African-American ever to be elected to the union’s bargaining committee. It was because of Ford that Gross ventured out to Milpitas, where he eventually served as a councilmember, and even mayor for two terms.

 

A shot of Ben Gross’ car, parked at Ford, in 1962. 

 

Patrick Sabin, who lived in Oakland, got hired by Ford on June 7, 1962. At first, he tried commuting from Oakland to Milpitas each day, but he soon grew exhausted. After a couple of years, he decided to move to Milpitas with his family, onto a street called Selwyn Drive.  

Sabin worked on the Ford line as a painter of passenger cars, and would relieve all painters whenever they needed a break. After six months, they moved him to work on commercial trucks.   

“If you followed one truck through the whole line, that truck would be out of there in an hour,” said Sabin. “We probably made about 150 trucks a day; maybe more, maybe less. When I started, we were painting 18 trucks an hour. And right before it closed down, we were painting about 35 an hour.” 

 

Patrick Sabin, at Ford, in the early eighties. 

 

When he left the navy in 1961, Sabin had his sights set on a job at the Oakland Tribune. However, since he wasn’t a high school graduate, he couldn’t get hired. They told him to focus on getting his GED, and then to come back. But while in the process of procuring his GED, he got a call from the unemployment office; they told Sabin they had something for him at Ford. The rest is history. 

When the plant shut down in 1983, Sabin still had nine years left on his 30-year job contract. So he moved to the other Ford plant in Kansas for a few years; and his wife came along with him. He finished up his Ford career with another few years at the Richmond parts depot, eventually retiring in 1992, at the age of 52.    

In 1994, the Great Mall opened where the plant once stood. At 1.4 million square feet of retail space, the mall is Northern California’s second largest.  

“So many people say that if it wasn’t for Ford Motor Company, this place would’ve never been what it is,” said Sabin. “Ford was the cause of all this growth in Milpitas.”

For more photos of Ford’s final days in Milpitas, keep scrolling. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

All Ford photos courtesy of the Sabin family. 

 

 

 

 

 

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Rhoda Shapiro
Rhoda Shapiro
Rhoda Shapiro is the winner of a 2022 Golden Quill Award for her Education journalism. She works as a journalist and media consultant in the Bay Area. She has written for both the Tri-City Voice and the Mercury News, and is the founder of Chi Media Company, which works mostly with nonprofit organizations and educational entities to elevate their marketing and communication platforms. Rhoda is also the author of “Fierce Woman: Wake up your Badass Self” and “Magic Within: Womb-Centered Wisdom to Realize the Power of Your Sacred Feminine Self.” Her YouTube channel features practices in yoga, meditation, and women’s empowerment. Rhoda is The Milpitas Beat’s Founder and Editor-in-Chief.

7 COMMENTS

  1. Great post on Patrick Sabin, Im trying to get some info on which trucks were built at the plant particularly 1956 Ford trucks is it possible to get a contact for Patrick?

  2. Wonderful fotos…thank you Patrick Sabin … my dad worked there…and settled in Newark California. He is now 80 years old and I really need to know the name of the guy where it looks like there’s a bar in front of his face… because it looks like my dad but I’m not sure… he is not home right now… so my mom says “I don’t have my glasses on “” but I’m hoping that when my dad sees the foto he says. Yeah that’s me. From Susan

  3. Great article, except that they forget to mention that the housing provided in Milpitas was only for white people – effectively keeping black workers out of that particular plant and neighborhood. It’s great to remember these historical sites, but all of the facts need to be present – you can’t just cherry-pick them.

    • Hi Talia, this was only meant to be a piece that focused on the experiences of the men that were interviewed here. We do acknowledge of course that there are many other facets to this site and that time in history. If you have information you can share about the experience of Black workers during that time, please reach out and let us know. We’d be happy to do a story on it. You can use the contact form here: https://milpitasbeat.com/contact/

  4. I graduated in 1955 and started my Engineering education at anew college in Sacramento, actually Del Paso Heights called American River Junior College or ARJC. The reason I mention this is because the Engineering Club made a field trip to tour the to Milpitas plant. They were assembling passenger cars that day. It was the most interesting experience that I had ever had. As I remember it, a car came off the assembly line every few minutes. There were no computers to keep track of parts or even the colors of the parts. They used teletype machines and teletype ribbons throughout the plant. A lot of parts at that time, o lot of parts were painted the same color as the car body, including the wheels.
    I am now 86 years old and now remember the tour vividly.
    Thanks,
    Robert Halk

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