Pontiac, Michigan, one of the largest population centers of the Detroit Metro, despite being roughly 30 miles away from downtown Detroit, would have much of its fate tied to it through its companies, migration trends, and even its sports teams. Due to this, the city has experienced much change. But what happened to Pontiac, Michigan?
History of Pontiac, Michigan
Pontiac, Michigan, founded on the Clinton River in 1818, named after the 18th-century War chief of the same name, would start off as a small milling town. It would achieve city status by the 1860s, and while it would grow at a relatively high rate through much of its early history, it would be relatively small up until after the turn of the century. However, at the end of the 1800s, what would become and turn into the city’s most important employer would begin when the Pontiac Buggy Company would be established. Originally being a carriage company for horses, it would jump on the major expansion of the automobile into the transportation landscape.
In 1907, they would switch to making cars, becoming the Oakland Motorcar Company. This car company would be quickly acquired by the then up-and-coming General Motors Corporation, then led by William Durant. From 1909 on, Oakland Motorcar would be a division of GM, with GM marketing it as a mid-level brand. This would eventually be replaced by the 1920s and early 1930s with the city’s namesake car, the Pontiac. With the growth and development of the Oakland car and then the Pontiac, the city would be put on the map within the auto industry, and it would grow heavily due to it going from just below 10,000 in 1900 to just under 65,000 in 1930, growing by roughly six times in just 30 years.
With one of the centerpiece employers being built in 1927 with the Pontiac Assembly, even if you couldn’t get a job at Pontiac, there were plenty of other automotive jobs within the area, as Detroit and its auto industry would only boom during this period.
Growth of Pontiac Michigan
While Pontiac’s growth would see a slowdown in the 1930s, it would pick up again, growing at over double digits in percentage in the 1950s and ’60s, falling in line with trends of suburbanization during that era. What amounted to basically an exurb of Detroit, the city eventually was becoming a self-contained city of itself within the Detroit Metro, having a significant downtown population and auto production line with multiple GM plants supplying thousands of jobs. While Detroit’s population would peak in 1950 and begin to decline from there on, Pontiac’s location as a distant suburb of Detroit likely helped it to continue to grow throughout the ’50s and ’60s, as it would not hit its population peak of around 85,000 until the 1970 census. It would be just after this population peak that major construction investment and eventually attraction would be coming to the city of Pontiac. What would become Pontiac Metropolitan Stadium, more famously known as the Pontiac Silverdome, would be constructed from 1973 to 1975. This dome would bring the NFL, NBA, major concerts, and even a Super Bowl to Pontiac.
Decline of Pontiac, Michigan
Elsewhere, though the 1970s would be the beginning of a long decline for Pontiac, as much of what would make it prosperous and successful would begin to change. Up until this point, relatively GM, Ford, and Chrysler had relatively little competition other than each other. However, with oil going into crisis multiple times in the 1970s, along with the oil embargo of that decade, would give foreign automakers such as Toyota, Honda, and others a foothold on the US market. Slowly but surely, aside from importing their cars to America, several foreign automakers, especially Toyota and Honda, would expand automotive production to the US, particularly in the 1980s.
This would have an undeniable effect on GM, Pontiac, and the Pontiac line, along with GMC, which also had major operations in the Pontiac plant. Closures would follow in the ’80s, ’90s, and 2000s. However, it would not just be jobs being lost that would cause Pontiac’s population to start to decline, as Pontiac would have its own suburbanization occur, with neighboring cities such as Troy and Auburn Hills becoming established. These two cities alone would grow rapidly. 1988 would see the opening of the Palace of Auburn Hills, and that would take the Pistons away from Pontiac with it. Later on, the Lions would vacate in 2002, leaving the Silverdome without its main tenant, beginning a long period of idling, abandonment, and eventually dereliction.
From 1970 to 2010, Pontiac would lose around 30% of its population. Ultimately, GM, as part of its bailout agreement with the government in 2009, would get rid of the Pontiac line entirely, seeing an end to one of the biggest parts of the city’s identity. Since then, the city’s population has leveled off, with its population being supported by remaining jobs in the auto industry in the area or jobs in healthcare. Pontiac is an example of what happens to a city that is so reliant on one industry or company; much of its fate gets identified with it and connected to it, along with the fate of its main city in the Metro. Whether it be the decline of GM, the auto industry, or trends of suburbanization, much of this would carry over to Pontiac, and it remains to be seen if the city can form a new identity going into the future.
