Films of the Construction of the Upjohn Portage Manufacturing Site (1946-1951)

From 1946 to 1951 The Upjohn Company built their new Portage, Michigan pharmaceutical manufacturing site. It was truly a huge project, costing 50 million dollars (a lot of money at that time). The company bought 1500 acres in the country south of Kalamazoo and the main building had 1.5 million square feet of space. Upjohn captured the construction process throughout those five years on 16mm films.

Construction techniques were quite different back then – blowing up trees with dynamite, and safety being quite casual. There was a crane that got overturned. A lot of hard work was done by hand. Equipment was primitive by today's standards. These films are being made available online for the first time in 2026. There is no sound and they are in no particular order.

I did compile the best scenes from all the films at this link: Compilation of the Best Parts of all the Films Below

Film 1
12 mins		 Building 41 - Architects and blueprints. Digging out the ground for the Building 41 basement. Installing concrete foundations for the steel pillars. Steel framework arising. Concrete basement walls being poured.  Steel rectangular tubing being installed on the roof.
Film 2
6 mins		 Building 41 - Roof being tarred, a layer of insulation panels laid, more tar, a sheet of waterproof tar paper, more tar and sand on top. Bricklaying in the winter. More steelwork going up. Scan of the finished front of Building 41. Completed Building 41 lounge.
Film 3
15 mins		 Building 41 - Adding insulation panels. Laying concrete block. Adding ceiling support ductwork and panels. Installing terrazo floor. Building the concourse road entrances. Installing steel girders to support the south mezzanine. Unloading a large steel support girder from a railcar inside Building 41. Attaching the large UPJOHN letters to the front of the building. Installing heated sidewalks. Pouring concrete walls for the tunnel to the power house. 
Film 4
12 mins		 Building 41 - Temporary roofing and scaffolding. Crane lifting large girders. More girders being put into place. Rebar in the floors. Finished exterior brickwork. Adding stone trim to the exterior. Sealing joints in large steel pipes. Installing stone coping at the roof level. Small crane laying on its side. Welding rectangular steel stock together on the roof. Closing off the central mezzanine. 
Film 5
2 mins		 Barn Fire - Fire departments tackling a barn fire on Upjohn property in Portage. Multiple fire trucks. Likely this was a controlled burn.
Film 6
5 mins		 St. Louis Distribution Center - Steel beam and concrete block construction. Panoramic view of the building while under construction.
Film 7
12 mins		 Cortin Building - Laying thr foundations. Crane moving tubs of concrete to work site. Railroad spur into the site. Unloading lumber from railroad cars. Erecting steel beams and girders. Welding of beams and girders. Unloading and stacking bricks by hand. Laying bricks. Laying concrete floor. Scaffolding for bricklayers on the front of the building. Tarring the roof. Delivering and installing reactors.
Film 8
18 mins		 Water Tower - Concrete foundations being poured. Metal panels being delivered and installed. Seams being welded and smoothed. Tower being painted.
Film 9
26 mins		 Power House - Blowing up old foundations with dynamite. Unloading girders from train car. Installing boilers. Installing a lot of pipework. Temporary boilerhouse. Welding girders. Adding heat exchangers. Steel framework completed. Installing rebar and underfloor condoit. Installing coal bunker. Laying exterior brickwork. Finished exterior. Crane being used to install the chimneys. Testing boilers. Finished building. Adding heating tubes under the Building 41 concourse road. Shot of parking lot.
Film 10
7 mins		 Waste Treatment Plant - Unloading girder from railroad car. Adding crushed stone into the waste treatment filtration tank. Steel pipes for carrying waste. Loading crushed stone into boxes for dumping in the filter. Uloading stone from railroad car. Upjohn Co railroad switcher in action.
Film 11
6 mins		 Temporary Power House - Early panoramic shot of the site. Laying foundations. Unloading boilers and steelwork. Installing boilers (Note - these boilers came from decommissioned WWII navy ships). Adding exterior walls of corrugated asbestos. Tarring the roof. Building 38 steelwork going up in the background. 
Film 12
8 mins		 Water and Waste Pipework - Moving large diameter corrugated steel pipes. Drilling water wells. Excavating and laying black iron pipe. Installing large diameter corrugated pipe in a trench.  
Film 13
6 mins		 Waste Treatment Plant - Aerial footage of the site. Finished waster water treatment plant. Lengthy explanation with diagrams of the waste treatment process. Tanker truck loading sludge for disposal elsewhere, probably on farm fields.
Film 14
12 mins		 Waste Treatment Plant - Making a sand filter, Finishing stonework on the building. Building the filtration tank. Installing the hollow floor in the filtration tank. Adding crushed rock to the filtration tank. Culvert where the clean water was released. Panoramic footage of the finished waster treatment plant.
Film 15
13 mins		 Misc - Drilling water well. Practising fire fighting with the new Upjohn Company fire truck. Building 41 sidewalks and concourse access road being finished. Building 41 parking lot before the asphalt was laid. Small building behind the temporary power house being constructed. Aerial footage of the site. Laying concrete curbing along Portage Road. Installing the flagpole in front of Building 41. Compacting subgrade and laying asphalt on internal roads. 
Film 16
14 mins		 Site Preparation - Blowing up trees with dynamite. Clearing the site. Concrete pipe being laid in a trench. Railroad car full of ballest being distibuted along the Upjohn spur track underneath it. Aerial view of the site. Blowing up old concrete foundations with dynamite. Grader working. Installing drains. Mechanical shovel excavating a basement. Framing for the Building 38 basement. Steel frame for one of the three construction sheds going up. Excavating. Aerial view of the site. Makeshift shelter. The 3 construction sheds finished. Drilling and flushing a large diameter water well. Laying asphalt. Mixing concrete. Employees playing croquet and softball on the finished lawn. Finished parking lot. Unloading top dirt. 
Film 17
10 mins		 Utilities - Upjohn railroad switcher arriving on a railroad flat car. Switcher being unloaded on a homemade ramp. Switcher being tested on the Upjohn spur. Concrete tunnels for underground utilities. Rebar being installed in a floor. Waterproofing tunnel sides with tar. Upjohn executives riding in the railroad switcher. Site electrical substation being installed. Large transformer arriving. Lifting and ballasting the railroad spur. Installing concrete and black iron pipe in a trench. Installing a fire hydrant. Installing 6ft diamemter concrete pipe in a trench. 
Film 18
5 mins		 Utlities - 6 ft concrete pipes being installed and joints being sealed in a deep trench. Ceramic brown pipe being installed and joints sealed in a trench. Aerial footage of the site with only Building 38 and the temporary power house built.

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