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Starting with the 1932 Model 18 Ford, Gregorie penned a boattailed speedster body that visually stretched the Model 18’s relatively short 106-inch wheelbase. He lengthened the stock ’32 Ford’s hood, extending all the way to the windshield, adding a couple of cooling vents. Some sources say that the rakishly tapered fenders were modified Trimotor aircraft “wheel spats,” but others say they were fabricated from scratch.
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The house was designed by prominent architect Albert Kahn, known for his work on several iconic structures in Detroit and industrial design in Ford Motor Co. factories. The look of Edsel and Eleanor’s house was inspired by Cotswold-style cottages in England. Ford was born in 1923, the third of Edsel and Eleanor Ford’s four children.
Ford House lagoon and pool restoration complete - Detroit Free Press
Ford House lagoon and pool restoration complete.
Posted: Sun, 24 Jul 2022 07:00:00 GMT [source]
Tours and Activities
With ceilings at only 6 feet, and doorways at just 5 feet, you may need to duck. Interestingly enough, this was NO typical attic, although there were a couple “real” attic rooms they used for storage. I really don’t want to spoil it, and I highly recommend the premium tour in order to see for yourself.
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Bring your group to Ford House to discover all that the estate has to offer.
It was to Gregorie that Edsel turned when he wanted to express his personal taste in automobiles. Working together, the two men created three of the most influential automobiles ever, two custom Ford speedsters and the 1939 Lincoln Continental. In terms of styling, one could argue that only landmark designs like the 1948 Cisitalia have been as influential as Edsel’s personal cars. The walk from these sunlit grounds to the cool recesses of Edsel Ford's Elizabethan study is a trip back in time. There, snapshots of family yachts and of the slim, carefully dressed Ford himself with the duke of Windsor, Mary Pickford and John D. Rockefeller share wall space with a photo of Franklin Roosevelt driving his specially equipped Ford.
ACG Detroit + Society of Automotive Analysts: Automotive Update at Ford House - DBusiness
ACG Detroit + Society of Automotive Analysts: Automotive Update at Ford House.
Posted: Tue, 12 Sep 2023 07:00:00 GMT [source]
Group Tours at Ford House
Ford House is grateful for the generous support of Ford Motor Company Fund and helping us fulfill our educational mission and making Ford House more accessible to our community. He was a noted philanthropist, founding the charitable Ford Foundation in 1936, and an avid arts supporter and collector of fine art. Edsel commissioned the Diego Rivera murals for the Detroit Institute of Arts, and his personal collection includes great masters like Van Gogh and Matisse, as well as art and artifacts from Africa and Asia. Edsel attended an all-boys school where he was assistant editor of the yearbook and a sprinter on the six-man track team.
Or knowing the home was left just as it was when Eleanor passed. Also, it could be knowing the integrity that goes into the preservation of the Ford House. On your walk from the pool house to Josephine’s play house, you go through the rose garden. Best time to not miss the rose garden is during the summer, when all the roses are in bloom. They maintained an extensive art collection in the home, including original paintings by Cézanne, Renoir, Degas, and Diego Rivera. Many of these paintings were donated to the Detroit Institute of Arts after Eleanor’s death.
Final Thoughts on Ford House: Home of Edsel and Eleanor Ford
A Michael Lamm story about Edsel’s speedsters that was published in Special Interest Autos magazine indicated that the car was owned by an Earl Pallasch in Deland, Florida. Unable to find anyone named Earl Pallasch, Warner contacted Lamm, who gave him contact information for John, Earl’s son. Warner called John Pallasch and invited him to show the car at the Amelia Island show. Pallasch told him that it wasn’t in running condition and that he really wanted to sell it. He found the Speedster in Pallasch’s garage, covered in decades of dust and junk, but it was essentially complete save for missing the custom wheel discs. Apparently the Speedster didn’t sell, and in 1957 it was returned to Georgia.
The buildings of the home were designed by notable Detroit architect Albert Kahn, and its gardens and grounds were created by Jens Jensen, a renowned landscape designer. Several restoration projects have been started in recent years, most of which were to fix the deteriorating masonry on the main house, the play house, and the various walks. The Edsel Ford house relies on donations as well as an original trust set up by Mrs. Ford to continue restoration work. Mrs. Ford left a total of $15 million when she handed the house over in trust in the 1970s. Mrs. Ford wanted to have a rose garden installed but Jensen originally disapproved of this claiming that it would ruin the landscape which was designed to look completely natural. Jensen had previously quit on Henry Ford and Clara Ford, when Clara wanted to install a rose garden directly in the center of the backyard meadow at the Henry Ford Estate.
Eleanor and Jensen eventually came to a compromise and the rose garden was placed behind some native bushes which was out of sight of the meadow that is the focal piece of the front lawn. Jensen's son was contracted later on to install the new garden area which has a reflecting pool and does not have the natural stylizing of the rest of the grounds. Instead he opted for finely trimmed bushes and square grassy areas. Ford House is a 501c3 nonprofit and 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. Like many of us do, the Fords updated spaces in their home as time passed. In the 1930s, Edsel hired famed industrial designer and Ford Motor Company collaborator Walter Dorwin Teague to redecorate four rooms. Teague created rich and original designs using a sleek, modern Machine-Age aesthetic. Later in the 1950s after Edsel’s passing, Eleanor hired friend and interior decorator Polly Jessup to design spaces that reflected her taste and highlighted her collection of fine art and antique furniture. In 1999, Bill Warner, founder of the Amelia Island Concours d’Elegance, was trying to track down the Edsel Speedster to display at the concours.
She donated Van Gogh’s “Portrait of the Postman Joseph Roulin,” which Bill Ford’s e-mail said was valued at $40 million, and other works valued at more than $1 million apiece to the Detroit Institute of Arts. At the time of her death, Josephine Ford owned more than 13 million shares of company stock -- about 18% of the stock held exclusively by Ford family members. In 2001, Time magazine estimated her fortune at $416 million. There are photos of the car, so theoretically a replica could be created based on one of those Jensens.
When Edsel Ford, the only son of auto mogul Henry Ford, and six friends arrived at the 1915 Panama-Pacific International Exposition, Ford Motor Co.’s exhibit at the event included a working assembly plant. The car is expected to arrive in Las Vegas on July 29 and to spend time in Los Angeles on Aug. 7 and 8. The 2015 version of the trip began when the Model T departed from the Henry Ford estate in Dearborn, Mich., outside Detroit, traveling at a top speed of 35 mph.
Guided group tours of the Main Residence and Grounds & Gardens are offered for parties of 10 or more, with flexible daytime and evening hours. Our lakeside event spaces make the perfect setting for your private event. So-called orphan cars -- long-vanished nameplates such as Nash, Hudson, Kaiser and, of course, Edsel -- are also popular. “I thought, ‘This is the most beautiful car I’ve ever seen in my life,’ ” recalled Mayer, a 79-year-old retired missionary who runs an Edsel parts supply shop in Fort Myers, Fla.
Karr said leaders of the historic Grosse Pointe Shores landmark spent a couple of years working on the grant process, and work on the estimated three-year project could start either later this year or early next year. With the money left behind to take care of the home, the trust has been able to pay for many repairs, including a new limestone roof, which boasted a price tag higher than the price of the entire home back in 1928. Sadly we were unable to tour the power house, which has a tunnel to connect it to the main home. There was some flooding due to lots of recent rainfall before we were there. I’ve always loved this style, and you can see the Cotswold Cottage is one of my favorites in Greenfield Village.
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