For Lansing resident car enthusiests this is a sad sight . The removal of the Oldsmobile name from the Olds world headquarters.
Oldsmobile sign to stay in Lansing
GM giving letters and sculpture to R.E. Olds museum
By Barbara Wieland
Lansing State Journal
http://www.lsj.com/apps/pbcs.dll/frontpage
A visible piece of Oldsmobile history will get a permanent home in Lansing.
General Motors Corp. said Friday it will donate the large Oldsmobile lettering atop the former car division's headquarters to the R.E. Olds Transportation Museum. The museum also will be given an abstract sculpture that stood at the south end of the building for about 40 years.
The fate of those items, as well as that of other reminders of Oldsmobile, have been in doubt since GM made the last Oldsmobile car in April 2004.
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GM spokeswoman Kim Carpenter said the Detroit automaker thought it fitting the landmark sign and statue should remain in Oldsmobile's hometown.
"They're a part of Lansing history and Oldsmobile history," she said. "It's good that we can keep them (in Lansing)."
GM isn't yet saying what it will do with the rest of the building or with the Lansing Car Assembly factory sites that used to make Oldsmobiles and other cars.
The sign and the sculpture come from the 41-year-old Oldsmobile building that housed the division's marketing operations until 1998, when the work was moved to Detroit. The items will be given to the museum "by the end of the year," a GM statement said.
The R.E. Olds museum is on holiday break, and Director Deborah Horstik couldn't be reached for comment Friday.
But Jim Walkinshaw, a former GM employee and Oldsmobile historian, said the donations will make a great addition to the museum at 240 Museum Drive.
"These are bits and pieces of Oldsmobile history. To save them is a worthwhile effort," Walkinshaw said.
The sculpture will be located outside the museum, while museum officials try to find a suitable way to display the sign.
Contact Barbara Wieland at 267-1348 or bwieland @lsj.com.
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Idea for the letters Sat Dec 23, 2006 11:43 am
Hey, how about this: our baseball stadium is called Oldsmobile Park, and from what I understand will continue to be called by that name. Perhaps we could find a way to incorporate the "Oldsmobile" letters from their world HQ into the ballpark. That could be kinda cool!