J.J. Deal and Son Carriage Factory
The J.J. Deal and Son Carriage Factory is a four-story brick building on West Street in Jonesville, Michigan, originally built for manufacturing wagons and carriages. The structure displays typical late 1800s factory features including large windows, wide doorways, and open floor plans designed to accommodate heavy equipment and allow workers to move materials efficiently.
Jacob J. Deal started as a blacksmith in Jonesville in 1857 and completed the current factory building in 1892. The business employed over 100 workers at its peak before closing in 1915 after George Deal's death in 1908 and declining demand for horse-drawn carriages.
The factory's name honors the Deal family, whose work shaped Jonesville's identity for generations. The building today serves as a physical reminder of how local manufacturing once brought communities together and gave people pride in their craftsmanship and skills.
The building now houses Heritage Lane Apartments and is listed on the National Register of Historic Places. A historic marker outside explains its past, and visitors can view the preserved original features and a 1890s buggy displayed in the lobby.
George Deal experimented with attaching a motor to a buggy, creating the Autobuggy, before the factory began manufacturing Deal automobiles with four-cylinder engines in 1908. Only two of these early vehicles are known to exist today, with one now in a Jonesville museum and the other once displayed in a Las Vegas casino.
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