Fair Lane

Architecture

Frank Lloyd Wright participated in 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 was brought in to work on the final stages of the residence, completed in 1915.

The 31,000 ft2 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.

Landscape

The powerhouse had its cornerstone laid by Thomas 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. 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, 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 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.

Museum

The estate 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 km2) 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 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.

Names

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, was named after the Fair Lane estate.

Gallery

File:Fair Lane (Clara and Henry Ford Mansion), Fair Lane Drive, Fairlane, Dearborn, MI - 54272601727.jpg|Northeast side File:Fair Lane (Clara and Henry Ford Mansion), Fair Lane Drive, Fairlane, Dearborn, MI - 54273487456.jpg|Northern corner File:Fair Lane (Clara and Henry Ford Mansion), Fair Lane Drive, Fairlane, Dearborn, MI - 54273740139.jpg|South side File:Fair Lane (Clara and Henry Ford Mansion), Fair Lane Drive, Fairlane, Dearborn, MI - 54273916055.jpg|Blue Garden Image:Henry and Clara Ford Statues at Fair Lane.jpg|Henry and Clara Ford Statues Image:Early Rose Garden at Fair Lane.jpg|Early Rose Garden Image:HenryFordEstatePowerHouse.jpg|Power house File:Fair Lane from across river.jpg|View from across the Rouge River

References

References

1. [http://www.henryfordestate.org/ Henry Ford Estate official website]
2. "Fair Lane". National Park Service.
3. {{NRISref. 2007a
4. A&E, with Richard Guy Wilson, Ph.D.,(2000). America's Castles: The Auto Baron Estates, ''A&E Television Network''
5. (March 2, 1975). "Joseph N. French, Fairlane Architect". [[Detroit Free Press]].
6. Grese, Robert E., ''Jens Jensen, Maker of Natural Parks and Gardens''. The Johns Hopkins University Press, 1992. {{ISBN. 0-8018-4287-5. pp. 50, 100-02, 159-60, 164-65
7. Nichols, Darren A.. (January 2018). "U-M Dearborn divests Henry Ford estate". Detroit News.
8. [http://library.umd.umich.edu/archon/?p=creators/creator&id=59 Henry Ford Estate – Fair Lane], University of Michigan-Dearborn Archives.
9. Ramsey, Jonathon. (April 24, 2010). "Ford Family Makes Plans to Take Back Fair Lane Estate". Luxist.com.
10. Welch, Sherri. (January 22, 2017). "Fair Lane Renovations Will Give Visitors the Experience of Everyday Life at Historic Mansion". Crain's Detroit Business..