Misplaced Pages

#756243

39-680: Fair Lane was the estate of Ford Motor Company founder Henry Ford and his wife, Clara Ford, in Dearborn, Michigan , in the United States . It was named after an area in Cork in Ireland where Ford's adoptive grandfather, Patrick Ahern, was born. The 1,300-acre (530 ha) estate along the River Rouge included a large limestone house, an electrical power plant on the dammed river,

78-413: A country house , mansion , palace or castle . It is the modern term for a manor , but lacks a manor's now-abolished jurisdiction. The "estate" formed an economic system where the profits from its produce and rents (of housing or agricultural land) sustained the main household, formerly known as the manor house . Thus, "the estate" may refer to all other cottages and villages in the same ownership as

117-823: A housing estate or industrial estate . Large country estates were traditionally found in New York's Long Island , and Westchester County , the Philadelphia Main Line , Maine's Bar Harbor on Mount Desert Island , and other affluent East Coast enclaves; and the San Francisco Bay Area , early Beverly Hills, California , Montecito, California , Santa Barbara, California and other affluent West Coast enclaves. All these regions had strong traditions of large agricultural, grazing, and productive estates modeled on those in Europe. However, by

156-400: A kitchen garden (for fruit and vegetables). A dower house may have been present on the estate to allow the widow of the former owner her own accommodation and household when moved out the primary house on the estate. The agricultural depression from the 1870s onwards and the decline of servants meant that the large rural estates declined in social and economic significance, and many of

195-469: A curved niche with eighteen vertical mirrored sections. He also designed bedrooms and sitting rooms for all three of Edsel and Eleanor's sons. Teague's design for son Henry Ford II ’s bathroom includes grey glass walls made of the same structural glass as its shower stall. The house featured an extensive art collection , reflecting Edsel and Eleanor's status as serious museum benefactors . After Eleanor Ford's death, many important paintings were donated to

234-643: A full size replica pirate ship on the lagoon as a party showpiece. The party was held outside just off the Apple Patio and featured live acts including Frank Sinatra . Edsel Ford died in this house in 1943 and his wife Eleanor Ford lived there until her death in 1976. It was her wish that the property be used for "the benefit of the public". The Edsel & Eleanor Ford House is open to the public for guided tours. Located on 87 acres (350,000 m ) at 1100 Lake Shore Road in Grosse Pointe Shores,

273-495: A glimpse of the residence down the long meadow after the passing the entry gates, then brief partial views along the long drive, and only at the end revealing the entire house and another view back up the long meadow. 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

312-453: A greenhouse, a boathouse , riding stables , a children's playhouse, a treehouse, and extensive landmark gardens designed by Chicago landscape architect Jens Jensen . The residence and part of the estate grounds are open to the public as a historical landscape and house museum , and preserved as a National Historic Landmark . Part of the estate grounds are preserved as a university nature study area. Frank Lloyd Wright participated in

351-483: 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

390-513: A traditional slate roof with the stone shingles decreasing in size as they reach its peak, and moss with ivy grown across the house's exterior. Construction on the house began in 1926. While construction of the house itself took only one year, two years were spent fitting it with antique wood paneling and fireplaces brought from English Manor houses ; interior fittings were in the hands of Charles Roberson, an expert in adapting old European paneling and fittings to American interiors. The Gallery,

429-585: A wooden overmantel with the date 1585, from Heronden Hall, in Tenterden , Kent . Other interesting design elements include kitchen counters made of sterling silver , a "secret" photographic darkroom behind a panel of Edsel Ford's office, and Art Deco style rooms designed by Walter Dorwin Teague , a leading industrial designer of the 1930s. Teague's first floor "Modern Room" features 'the new' indirect lighting method, taupe colored leather wall panels, and

SECTION 10

#1732790450757

468-784: The Detroit Institute of Arts (DIA). Reproductions were hung in their place. The classical French-style Drawing Room features two original Paul Cézanne paintings and reproductions of Pierre-Auguste Renoir and Edgar Degas works. A reproduction of Vincent van Gogh 's The Postman Roulin hangs in the Morning Room. An original Diego Rivera painting, Cactus on the Plains , hangs in the Modern Room. The estate's gardens were designed by landscape architect Jens Jensen with his traditional 'long view,' giving visitors

507-563: The National Register of Historic Places in 1979, and was designated a National Historic Landmark in 2016. The Fords traveled to England with Albert Kahn for the concept's ideas, where they were attracted to the vernacular architecture of the Cotswolds . They asked Kahn to design a house that would resemble the closely assembled village cottages typical of that rural region. Kahn's design included sandstone exterior walls,

546-484: The 30,000-square-foot (2,787 m ) house has a fine collection of original antiques and art, and beautiful lakefront grounds. The grounds include the frontage on Ford's Cove, the total Lake St. Clair waterfront of the property is 3,100 feet (985 m). The house currently hosts special events, classes and lectures. The estate is listed on the National Register of Historic Places . Several restoration projects have been started in recent years, most of which were to fix

585-575: The Norman era, hunting had always been a popular pastime with the British royalty and nobility, and dating from the medieval era, land was parcelled off and put aside for the leisurely pursuits of hunting. These originated as royal forests and chase land, eventually evolving into deer parks , or sometimes into the Royal Parks if owned by the royal family. The ownership of these estates for hunting

624-453: 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

663-531: The country houses were destroyed , or land was parcelled off to be sold. An urban example of the use of the term estate is presented by the "great estates" in Central London such as the Grosvenor and Portman , which continue to generate significant income through rent. Sometimes London streets are named after the rural estates of aristocratic landowners, such as in the case of Wimpole Street . From

702-441: 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. In 2007 the fund reached a value of $ 98 million. The house has undergone multiple large scale restoration projects, including new roofing which

741-498: The entrance drive leads visitors through the estate's dense woodland areas. Bends in the drive, planted with large trees on the inside arc of the curves, gives a feeling of a natural reason for the turn, and obscures any long view. Suddenly, the visitor is propelled out of the forest and into the open space where the residence is presented fully in view in front of them. The idea of wandering was one which Jensen featured in almost all of his designs. Expansive meadows and gardens make up

780-447: The estate is restored to the original construction specifications. The most recent restoration project was to replace the sandstone pillars on the outside of the lakefront patio , which had started to crack around the upper edges. To ensure complete historical accuracy the foundation contracted a firm from the same region from where the original stone was purchased. There are still many rooms where visitors are not permitted, including

819-473: The estate's garage and, on the upper level, a laboratory where Ford worked on engine designs. It is also built of limestone in the Prairie Style. The hydropower not only powered the estate, but a part of the town of Dearborn as well. Jens Jensen employed his "delayed view" approach in designing the arrival at the residence . Instead of proceeding straight to the house or even providing a view of it,

SECTION 20

#1732790450757

858-783: The house in the late 1930s. Roberson's barrel-vaulted ceiling for the Gallery was modeled on one at Boughton Malherbe , Kent , England. Paneling and doors in the Dining Room, entirely devoid of electricity, came from 'New Place', a victim of early twentieth-century expansion in Upminster , a new suburb of London . The Library's paneling and its stone chimneypiece came from the Brudenell seat, Deene Park , Northamptonshire , England. Harris suggests that this already once removed paneling had come from another 'Brudenell seat.' The Study has

897-605: The initial design. However, after Wright fled to Europe with his mistress Mamah Borthwick , one of his assistant architects, Marion Mahony Griffin , one of the first female architects in America, revised and completed the design according to her own interpretation of the Prairie Style . Henry Ford and his wife took a trip to Europe and, on their return, dismissed Griffin and used William H. Van Tine to add English Manor house details. In 1913, architect Joseph Nathaniel French

936-533: The larger landscape, with naturalistic massings of flowers surrounding the house. The largest axial meadow, the "Path of the Setting Sun", is aligned so that, on the summer solstice , the setting sun glows through a precise parting of the trees at the meadow's western end. The boathouse, with stonework cliffs designed by Jensen, allowed Ford to travel on the Rouge River in his electric boat. The estate

975-571: The largest room in the house, is paneled with sixteenth-century oak linenfold relief carved wood paneling . Its hooded chimneypiece is from Wollaston Hall in Worcestershire , England; the timber-framed house had been demolished in 1925 and its dismantled elements and fittings were in the process of being dispersed. A staircase came from Lyveden Manor House, also known as Lyveden Old Bield , second home of Sir Thomas Tresham . Fourteenth century stained-glass window medallions were added to

1014-566: The late 1940s and early 1950s, many of these estates had been demolished and subdivided , in some cases resulting in suburban villages named for the former owners, as in Baxter Estates, New York . An important distinction between the United States and England is that "American country estates, unlike English ones, rarely, if ever, supported the house." American estates have always been about "the pleasures of land ownership and

1053-418: The man-made lagoon and swimming pool contains changing rooms and a squash court with spectator's gallery. Closer to the gate house is Josephine Ford's child-sized playhouse , built for her by her grandmother Clara, in 1930. It features working electricity and plumbing and an exterior decorated with characters from nursery rhymes. For William on his 21st birthday the family enlisted a company which built

1092-579: The mansion itself, covering more than one former manor. Examples of such great estates are Woburn Abbey in Bedfordshire , England, and Blenheim Palace , in Oxfordshire , England, built to replace the former manor house of Woodstock. Before the 1870s, these estates often encompassed several thousand acres, generally consisting of several farms let to tenants ; the great house was supplied with food from its own home farm (for meat and dairy) and

1131-466: The money for their improvement and maintenance usually comes from fortunes earned in other economic sectors besides agriculture. They are distinguished from ordinary middle-class American houses by sheer size, as well as their landscaping, gardens, outbuildings, and most importantly, recreational structures (e.g., tennis courts and swimming pools). This usage is the predominant connotation of "estate" in contemporary American English (when not preceded by

1170-457: The opportunity to enjoy active, outdoor pursuits ." Although some American estates included farms, they were always in support of the larger recreational purpose. Today, large houses on lots of at least several acres in size are often referred to as "estates", in a contemporary updating of the word's usage. Most contemporary American estates are not large enough to include significant amounts of self-supporting productive agricultural land, and

1209-408: The rest of the grounds. Instead he opted for finely trimmed bushes and square grassy areas. The grounds of the estate include a power house and a gate house along affluent Lake Shore Drive, often mistaken for the actual house. The gate house includes apartments formerly used by staff and an eight-car garage with a turntable to rotate cars so they don't need to back out. The Recreation House beyond

Fair Lane - Misplaced Pages Continue

1248-452: The site known as "Gaukler Point", on the shore of Lake St. Clair . The house became the new residence of the Edsel and Eleanor Ford family in 1928. Edsel Ford was the son of Henry Ford and an executive at Ford Motor Company . The estate's buildings were designed by architect Albert Kahn , its site plan and gardens by renowned landscape designer Jens Jensen . The property was listed on

1287-744: The stewardship of the estate was transferred to the same non-profit group that operates the lakeside Edsel and Eleanor Ford House , with financial help from the Ford family. The private rail car of Henry and Clara Ford, named "Fair Lane", was kept on standby at the Ford siding of the Michigan Central Railroad in Dearborn. The Ford Fairlane automobile model, sold between 1955 and 1970 in America , and between 1959 and 2007 in Australia ,

1326-478: The word "real" ), which is why "industrial estate" sounds like an oxymoron to Americans, as few wealthy persons would deliberately choose to live next to factories. Traditional American estates include: Edsel and Eleanor Ford House The Edsel and Eleanor Ford House is a mansion located at 1100 Lake Shore Drive in Grosse Pointe Shores , northeast of Detroit , Michigan ; it stands on

1365-491: Was brought in to work on the final stages of the residence, completed in 1915. The 31,000-square-foot (2,900 m) house, with 56 rooms, was considered befitting, but less grand than other great houses and mansions of the era in America. It included an indoor pool and bowling alley . The pool is now covered over and serves as an event and meeting space. It had formerly housed a restaurant. The powerhouse had its cornerstone laid by Thomas Alva Edison . The building included

1404-530: Was conducted by a firm from England using five professional masons. The roof was torn down to the base wood all of which was replaced where needed. The stone was selected to match the existing stone from the same quarry as the original. The restoration projects are done by skilled craftsmen who have had proven previous experience in their fields. The foundation selects bidders for projects based on their previous experience, portfolio and firms that can provide near original/original material over pricing to ensure that

1443-528: Was donated to the University of Michigan in 1957 for a new Dearborn campus. The staff's former houses and a pony barn are used by the University of Michigan–Dearborn . The main house, powerhouse, garage and 72 acres (0.29 km) of land were operated as a museum, while a restaurant occupied the former indoor swimming pool natatorium until the University closed Fair Lane to the public in 2010. In 2013

1482-472: Was in practice strictly restricted until the 19th century when legal changes to game hunting meant the nobility, gentry and other wealthy families could purchase land for the purposes of hunting. At the administrative centre of these sporting estates is usually a sporting lodge . These are also often known as shooting or hunting estates. In modern British English , the term "estate" has been generalised to any large parcel of land under single ownership, such as

1521-545: Was named after the Fair Lane estate. 42°18′51.1″N 83°13′56.1″W  /  42.314194°N 83.232250°W  / 42.314194; -83.232250 Estate (land) In the United Kingdom , historically an estate comprises the houses, outbuildings, supporting farmland, tenanted buildings, and natural resources (such as woodland) that surround the gardens and grounds of a very large property, such as

#756243