Table Of Content
The Fords were cultural, social, and economic leaders in an era of great optimism, as well as a turbulent time of economic depression and world war. They were nationally prominent, and they owned more than one house, but Southeast Michigan was their home. Here, they built their final residence along the shores of Lake St. Clair at a place known locally as Gaukler Pointe. Their impressive yet unpretentious home is where they raised and nurtured their four children - Henry II, Benson, Josephine, and William - in a safe and loving environment. It reflects their love of family as well as their mutual passion for art and quality design. When the Fords commissioned Kahn to design their house, they traveled with him to England for inspiration and ideas.
Group Tours at Ford House
Welcome Mat: Enjoy new 'Home for the Holidays at Ford House' and more - Detroit News
Welcome Mat: Enjoy new 'Home for the Holidays at Ford House' and more.
Posted: Thu, 09 Nov 2023 08:00:00 GMT [source]
The front axle was moved forward 10 inches, and a combination of stock and custom suspension and steering parts were used to lower and extend the front end. Gombos started a painstaking five-year restoration using period photographs to reproduce custom parts that had gone missing over the years. Mike and Jim Barillaro from Knoxville, Tennessee, hand-crafted new aluminum fenders, and the car was painted in 1932 Ford Tunis Gray—based on untouched paint that Gombos found on the underside of the cowl vent. A period-correct ’36 flathead Ford flathead V-8, with a Stromberg 81 two-barrel carburetor, was sourced to power the Speedster.
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They were nationally prominent and they owned more than one house, but Southeast Michigan was their home. Here they built their final residence along the shores of Lake St. Clair, at a place known locally as Gaukler Pointe. Their impressive yet unpretentious home is where they raised and nurtured their four children - Henry II, Benson, Josephine and William - in a safe and loving environment. Warner considered doing a full restoration back to the original grille design, but in the end decided the speedster was a piece of history. Instead he and his team rebuilt the engine, replacing the aftermarket Edelbrok heads that had likely been installed when the car was in Hollywood with stock units, and then touched up the paint. Coming in spring 2020, Ford House will open a brand new visitor center and administration building, currently under construction.
thoughts on “Ford House: Home of Edsel and Eleanor Ford”
The body was again fabricated at the aircraft division per Gregorie’s design for a two-passenger roadster, with a vee’d grille; a tapered, boattail rear end; and cut-down doors. The hand-formed aluminum panels were mounted to a tube framework. Again, the sources say the cycle-style front fenders that turn with the wheels were modified from Ford Trimotor parts. The finished car weighed only 2400 pounds, so the stock 75-horsepower Model 40 flathead V-8 still gave it sprightly acceleration with a three-speed manual transmission and a floor shifter.
Ford House is a 501c3 nonprofit and a National Historic Landmark. Experience the historic family home of Edsel Ford, the only son of Henry Ford, and his wife, Eleanor. Now a National Historic Landmark, visitors from all over the world come to wander, wonder, and explore the beauty of this 1928 National Historic Landmark and uncover a unique piece of the American automotive story in metro Detroit.
Early Edsels also suffered from poor quality, and Ford executive Robert McNamara -- later appointed secretary of Defense by President Kennedy -- was opposed to the car and worked to kill it. For example, the shifting buttons, mounted in the center of the steering wheel, reportedly caused some drivers to shift gears when all they wanted to do was honk the horn. Among collectors, “it’s certainly right up there with the classic American cars,” said Terry Lobzun, a spokesman for RM Auctions Inc.
History of the Estate
If you’re a fan of architecture, you can find all, of the over 400 designs, in and around Detroit. I learned a lot about Kahn’s contribution to the Detroit area. Albert Kahn, considered the world’s foremost industrial architect, was most known for his design of American automobile factories. Although he was considered the “father of modern factory design” there is no shortage of his contribution to the city of Detroit, and the surrounding areas. I took lots of notes during our tour, and Ford House graciously shared even more facts with me, so I’m in no way short of information I can share with you.
“Bob” Gregorie, the first head of styling for Ford Motor Company, to render his ideas—Edsel Ford was no novice at the visual arts. He himself drew and took painting classes his entire life, and Edsel and his wife, Eleanor, were informed patrons of the arts. Edsel underwrote the creation of the renowned Detroit Industry murals that Diego Rivera painted in the great hall of the Detroit Institute of Art, and Eleanor donated and funded that museum’s multi-million dollar collection of African art. Consequently, the landscaping has a deceptive openness that keeps the house from view until the visitor is nearly upon it. Jensen also remade some of the actual contours of the landscape, dredging a nearby cove and building up a sandbar into a wildlife sanctuary. Like ponds in a manicured meadow, his irregularly shaped 132-foot-long swimming pool drained into a lagoon and then into the lake beyond.
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There are still many rooms where visitors are not permitted, including the basement. While the estate houses 60-plus rooms as well as other buildings, the public tours usually only showcase 20 of them. Occasionally the other rooms, such as staff living quarters, are showcased in specific tours. Though a number of rooms in the north upstairs wing of the house hold administrative offices, these are not shown to the public. Some of the rooms are still in less than desirable condition, and restoration projects hope to have the entire estate in show-worthy condition within the next few years. Both Edsel and Eleanor lived at the home until their deaths, in 1943 and 1976, respectively.
Offering a one-of-a-kind look into the private lives of Edsel Ford, his wife Eleanor and their children, a guided tour of their 60-room lakeside mansion brings you into the same rooms they called home. The Fords’ carefully designed and curated home also reveals their deep love for art and design, from architecture and landscape to their impressive personal collection of art and antiques. The house was designed by Detroit architect Albert Kahn and completed in 1929. Kahn designed a gracious sixty-room house resembling a Cotswold village. The exterior was fashioned in Briarhill sandstone from Ohio; the interior was paneled and plastered in the seventeenth-century English manner. Construction took three years—from 1926 to 1929—and no detail was overlooked.
Ford House, Michigan Science Center shine during eclipse event - C&G Newspapers
Ford House, Michigan Science Center shine during eclipse event.
Posted: Tue, 16 Apr 2024 07:00:00 GMT [source]
Opening 2020, will be a new visitor center, including a restaurant. Edsel passed at the young age of 49, and Eleanor remained in the home until she passed in 1976. Because all the children were successful, and had mansions of their own, the Ford House became a legacy they would leave behind. You will find the butterfly garden up by the guard house, which is the main entrance. Also where you check in, choose your tour, find the restrooms, and explore the gift shop. For her 7th birthday, Josephine received this Tudor style play house from her grandmother, Clara Ford.
The couple met at a dance, and enjoyed hosting elaborate parties in the grand room. They even had a pirate themed party for their son, which included at pirate ship! If only the walls could talk, there would be many stories to tell. Henry II, Benson, Josephine, and William took after their parents, and grandparents, by embracing a love of philanthropy.
A different intricate pattern adorned each of the ten plaster ceilings, and the gabled roof was covered with limestone tiles—period and new—laid by English workers imported for the purpose. These artisans knew how to make a proper Cotswold roof, laying smaller and smaller tiles as they ascended toward the peak. (To this day English workers are brought in to make repairs.) The same craftsmen installed the seventeenth- and eighteenth-century paneling and other architectural details culled by the Fords from old English manors.
Edsel, Henry Ford’s only son, nearly bankrupted the family carmaking business in the 1950s, but the company was rebuilt by Josephine’s oldest brother, Henry Ford II, who was chief executive from 1945 until his retirement in 1979. Edsel Ford gave the third speedster to Gregorie, who drove it for a few years before selling it to a friend on Long Island. A 1952 photo shows it on a used car lot in Burbank, California. It had been modified, with a LaSalle grille, a padded “Carson” top, and a two-tone color scheme. How seriously Edsel considered producing it is open to speculation as he still feared his father’s wrath based on what happened to that Model T prototype.
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