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.
Architecture
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.[5]
The 31,000-square-foot (2,900 m2) house, with 56 rooms, was considered befitting, but less grand than other great houses and
. 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.
John Burroughs grotto, Henry Ford Estate
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.[6] 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
natatorium 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 lakeside Edsel and Eleanor Ford House, with financial help from the Ford family.[7][9][10]
View of back of house from across the river
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.
^"Fair Lane". National Historic Landmark summary listing. National Park Service. Archived from the original on October 6, 2012. Retrieved June 27, 2008.
Power house
North east side
South side
Southwest side
Northwest side
Power house – garage
Henry and Clara Ford Statues
Early Rose Garden
