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Ivan Doverspike Warehouse

At the dawn of the automotive boom in the early 1900’s, many of Detroit’s manufacturing companies had settled in a part of town called Milwaukee Junction where several major roads and railroads intersected. Blocks of warehouses and manufacturing plants, serving diverse industries grew and blended together over the years as companies came and went.

One good example is the former Ivan Doverspike warehouse on Clay Street. In the early 1900’s this was still a residential block, bookended by two companies: J.W. Murray Manufacturing, on the western end of the block made automobile components, and American Can Company. The American Can plant, on the eastern end of the block likely came first, built sometime after 1902. Murray would eventually spread its operations south of Clay Street, building what is known today as the Russell Industrial Center. The warehouse on the corner of Clay and Morrow was built in 1925 and was connected to the adjacent buildings sometime after.

Murray vacated and auctioned off the buildings in 1955. Several industrial tenants have used the buildings since then, mostly for the storage of machinery and equipment. Starting in 1990 the main tenant was Ivan Doverspike, who used the facility for storage of machine tools.