This firm came into existence in about 1938, during the boom in the machine tool industry created by the buildup to World War II. The company founders were George F. Van Paris and Don (Donnivan?) H. Dawson. Given the company's location near Ford and GM plants, their work was likely related to the automotive industry. They also made a vertical milling machine, and at least a couple of surviving examples have been seen.

As the war effort wound down in 1944-45, machine tool manufacturers faced a business drought caused by the combination of war-related purchasing slowing down plus a glut of used machinery flooding the market. Center T&M disappeared in 1945 or perhaps early '46.

Information Sources

• 1939 Flint City Directory: "CENTER TOOL & MACHINE CO (Geo F VanParis, Don H Dawson), Machinists, Dies, Tools, Fixtures, Stampings, Experimental and Model Work 1722 Glenwood av, Tel 9-5931".
• A PracticalMachinist.com discussion provides pictures of a Center mill plus the results from some research on the company. Of particular note is this correspondence received from the Sloan Museum.

  We don’t have any photographs or archival materials related to the company. I did check the city directories and found the first entry for the company in 1939. “Center Tool & Machine Co. (Geo F. VanParis, Don H. Dawson) Machinists, Dies, Tools, Fixtures, Stampings, Experimental and Model Work. 1722 Glenwood Ave. Tel 9-5931.” It was also listed in the 1942 Directory, but not in the 1946. We don’t have a complete run of the 1940s Directories. If you like I can go to the library and check the other years, but a date of 1939-1945 seems reasonable. Jane M, Curator of Collections

  The above was in an email forwarded by Tim Shickles, the Director of the Sloan Museum. The following came some time later, also from Tim.

  I had the opportunity to visit with one of our longtime residents who has been in the metals business in Flint. His grandfather started the business and what I learned was that many machine shops received Federal contracts during WWII. Some of these were given directly to the smaller shops and in other cases GM farmed out some of the work they could not get done. Due to the location of the Center Tool, directly across the street from Chevy in the Hole, it would seem very likely that they would have been working with Chevy during the War. As you may recall, Jane noted that she could not find the name of the Center Tool Company in the 1945 City Directory. According to this contact he noted that when WWII ended all the contracts were ended abruptly and many of the smaller shops simply could not survive until additional work came along. In the case of this gentleman’s grandfathers business, Bruce informed me that his grandfather just about lost his shop but was able to hook up with American Flyer and made metal wheels and axles for the toy trains until more substantial work came along a year or two after the War. Bruce is contacting a couple of additional old timers that he knows who now live in Florida to see if they might have a recollection of the company. More may be on the way.

  Some months later was another email from Tim.

  It has been a while but I have one volunteer who just loves to dig into stories of long gone companies. A few weeks ago I mentioned to him that I had been working on a company, Center Tool, and had sent only partial information to you. This volunteer, Bob, delivered to me a bit more information to me late last week so I thought I had better pass it along to you if you still have interest. Bob found the company located at 1722 Glenwood Ave. in Flint in 1941. This would place the business right next store to Chevy in the Hole as the address is at the corner of Glenwood and Chevrolet Ave. If you check Mapquest on your computer and plug in the address you will see the location of the business. Center Tool & Machine Co was run by George F Van Paris and Don H Dawson. They did machining, dies, tools, fixtures, stampings, experimentals, and model work. In the 1937 directory Bob was able to locate George Van Paris as a Foreman at A.G. Redmond in Owosso, MI. (just down the road about 20 miles west of Flint). Don Dawson was listed in the 1937 directory as a Diemaker at AC Spark Plug in Flint.
  
  In 1943-45 Center Tool moved to 1409 N. Saginaw. This would have put the business about 10 blocks from Buick manufacturing plant. Once again Bob could only find the company in business for 1938 to 1945. According to Bob it looks as if the last year or two George and Don might have been working out of the same building that Genesee Motor Sales was located in on N. Saginaw. This was a Cadillac- Pontiac dealership, and with no new cars to sell during WWII Center Tool may have been renting space from the dealership.