YPSILANTI TOWNSHIP, Mich. — Rosie the Riveter’s old plant in Michigan has officially avoided the wrecking ball.

Yankee Air Museum board chairman Ray Hunter signed papers Thursday making the aviation museum the owner of a 144,000-square-foot slice of the former Willow Run Bomber Plant, where Rose Will Monroe and other workers built B-24 Liberator bombers during World War II.

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A B-25 bomber rests in front of the former Willow Run Bomber Plant in Ypsilanti Township, Mich., Thursday.The plant was where Rose Will Monroe helped build B-24 Liberator bombers during World War II.

The signing ceremony represented the culmination of efforts to raise the $8 million needed to save part of the factory for the nearby Yankee Air Museum’s new home.

The Willow Run factory, which was built by Ford Motor Co. and featured a mile-long assembly line, churned out one B-24 every hour and nearly 9,000 in all.