JANESVILLE, Wis.–Blackhawk Community Credit Union, which was founded in 1965 to serve the huge General Motors plant here, is now helping distribute bricks from that same plant after it has been torn down.
Residents looking for a little piece of history are being invited to stop by Blackhawk Community CU offices on May 4 to receive a brick. The bricks are free and come with a “certificate of authenticity” that memorialize the nearly 100 years the plant existed in Janesville, according to the Gazette.
Blackhawk Community Credit Union board member Steve Knox, a volunteer in an effort by the credit union to obtain, clean and distribute bricks from the defunct auto plant, said the credit union has about 2,000 bricks from the GM plant on pallets and ready to distribute, the Gazette reported.
Plans are to distribute the bricks from 1 to 4 p.m.at Blackhawk’s west side branch at 2640 W. Court St. People will be allowed two bricks per vehicle,.
The bricks are among the oldest in the plant, Knox told the Gazette, and come from a wall that separated Fischer Body and Chevrolet operations at the plant—"an area of the plant where thousands of workers once passed every day.”
Relics for ‘Legacy Center’
The 250-acre site that was once home to the sprawling site has been cleared and is being redeveloped by its new owner, Commercial Development. BCCU worked with Commercial Development to obtain some historical relics from the plant that the credit union aims to incorporate in a GM worker’s “legacy center” it plans at a new, $30 million corporate headquarters in downtown Janesville, according to the Gazettte.
Blackhawk Community CU said it is likely to obtain additional brick and has a tentative second date for brick distribution of May 11.