Fair Lane

Here Henry and Clara Bryant Ford lived from 1915 until their deaths in 1947 and 1950. The eminent American auto magnate and inventor named Fair Lane after the road on which his father, William Ford, was born in County Cork, Ireland. The fifty-six room mansion made of marblehead limestone and concrete was completed in 1915. Inventor Thomas A. Edison, a frequent guest here, laid the cornerstone in 1914 for the powerhouse which supplied power for the entire estate. Ford’s popularization of the automobile propelled America into an era of accelerated urbanization and industrialization. Yet, the home of this man of controversy and varied interests reflects a love of nature and the countryside. Donated by the Ford Motor Company in 1957 to the University of Michigan for a Dearborn campus, Fair Lane’s secluded acres shelter a national bird sanctuary and nature trails.