Henry Ford Estate

Jackson and I drove out to the Henry and Clara Ford Estate today. We took a two hour tour of the house (it has 52 different rooms) and the garage.


The Fords had a 9 hole golf course, billiards room, bowling alley and swimming pool put in to keep their son busy.

I thought this dam was interesting. It was designed by Jens Jensen (they kept saying his name as though I should have heard of him before. I haven't.) You can see thought that he put in stepping stones across the top so that the Fords could cross the water to visit their friends. Apparently Henry Ford was in the habit of buying houses near the estate for people he liked.

On the left is their five story garage (which was actually the most interesting part of the tour I thought.) The garage is where they generated all of their electricity, filtered their own water along with the garage and Ford had a work space here too because he was afraid of people stealing his ideas apparently.

This side of the house is inspired by Frank Lloyd Wright, who originally designed the house before his falling out with the Fords.

A Ford tractor

The car on the right is, in Henry Ford's opinion, the best car he manufactured. It has cup holders, a rear window wiper and a car phone. They didn't manufacture this car for very long because those features were not very popular, if you can imagine that.

This is the master bedroom. Above the beds are pictures of Henry Ford's parents.

This table is actually a lead safe where Henry Ford kept millions of dollars on hand (he didn't trust the banks, especially after the depression.)

The small racing car broke a speed record in the early 1900's when it reached about 70 mph. It gave Henry Ford the notoriety he needed to start his third company, Ford Motor Company.

This car ran on batteries! Clara Ford would drive it around the estate because it was quiet and didn't scare off the animals.
Jackson and a Model T


So after the last post the lip got bigger, if you can imagine that. Thankfully it went back to normal a couple of days ago!