Fair Lane | |
%2c_Fair_Lane_Drive%2c_Fairlane%2c_Dearborn%2c_MI_-_54273738503.jpg) Fair Lane from the Rouge River side | |
 Interactive map showing Fair Lane's location | |
| Location | Dearborn, Michigan |
|---|---|
| Built | 1913–1915[1] |
| Architect | Joseph N. French, William Van Tine, Marion Mahony Griffin, Frank Lloyd Wright, Jens Jensen. |
| Architectural style | Baronial,Prairie |
| NRHP reference No. | 66000399 |
| Significant dates | |
| Added to NRHP | November 13, 1966[3] |
| Designated NHLD | November 13, 1966[2] |
| Designated MSHS | February 18, 1958 |
Fair Lane was theestate ofFord Motor Company founderHenry Ford and his wife,Clara Ford, inDearborn, Michigan, United States. It was named after an area inCork, Ireland, where Ford's adoptive grandfather, Patrick Ahern, was born. The 1,300-acre (530 ha) estate along theRiver Rouge included a largelimestone house, an electrical power plant on the dammed river, a greenhouse, aboathouse, ridingstables, a children's playhouse, a treehouse, and extensive landmark gardens designed byChicago landscape architectJens Jensen.
The residence and part of the estate grounds are open to the public as ahistorical landscape and housemuseum, and preserved as aNational Historic Landmark. Part of the estate grounds are preserved as a university nature study area.
Frank Lloyd Wright participated in the initial design.[4] However, after Wright fled to Europe with his mistressMamah 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 thePrairie 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 EnglishManor house details. In 1913, architectJoseph Nathaniel French was brought in to work on the final stages of the residence, completed in 1915.[5]
The 31,000-square-foot (2,900 m2) house, with 56 rooms, was considered befitting, but less grand than other great houses andmansions of the era in America. It included anindoor pool andbowling 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 byThomas Alva Edison. The building included 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. Thehydropower 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 theresidence. Instead of proceeding straight to the house or even providing a view of it, the entrance drive leads visitors through the estate's densewoodland 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. Expansivemeadows and gardens make up the larger landscape, with naturalistic massings offlowers surrounding the house. The largest axial meadow, the "Path of the Setting Sun", is aligned so that, on thesummer solstice, the setting sun glows through a precise parting of the trees at the meadow's western end.[6] The boathouse, with stonework cliffs designed by Jensen, allowed Ford to travel on theRouge River in his electric boat.
The estate was donated to theUniversity of Michigan in 1957[7] for a new Dearborn campus. The staff's former houses and a pony barn are used by theUniversity of Michigan–Dearborn. The main house, powerhouse, garage and 72 acres (0.29 km2) of land were operated as a museum, while a restaurant occupied the former indoor swimming poolnatatorium until the University closed Fair Lane to the public in 2010.[8] In 2013 the stewardship of the estate was transferred to the same non-profit group that operates the lakesideEdsel and Eleanor Ford House, with financial help from the Ford family.[7][9][10]
Theprivate rail car of Henry and Clara Ford, named "Fair Lane", was kept on standby at the Ford siding of theMichigan Central Railroad in Dearborn. The Ford Fairlane automobile model, sold between 1955 and 1970 inAmerica, and between 1959 and 2007 inAustralia, was named after the Fair Lane estate.
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A graduate of theMassachusetts Institute of Technology, he came to Detroit in 1913 to work as an architect on Henry Ford's home, Fairlane.
42°18′51.1″N83°13′56.1″W / 42.314194°N 83.232250°W /42.314194; -83.232250
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