The Dearborn Inn / Colonial Homes and Adjacent Buildings

Henry Ford built the Dearborn Inn in 1931 to accommodate overnight travelers arriving at the Ford Airport. Located opposite the inn on Oakwood Boulevard, the airport opened in 1924. The 179-room inn, designed by Albert Kahn, was the world´s first airport hotel. The Georgian-style structure features a crystal-chandeliered ballroom and high ceilings. Its rooms are decorated with reproductions of furniture and fabrics of the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. The guest quarters along Pilots Row originally were used by the airline´s crews. The inn and the adjacent colonial homes reflect Henry Ford´s fondness for American history. Colonial Homes and Adjacent Buildings In 1937 the Dearborn Inn´s accommodations were expanded with replicas of historically famous homes. Constructed on this twenty-three-acre wooded complex, the additions included the Barbara Fritchie House, the Patrick Henry House, the Oliver Wolcott House, the Edgar Allen Poe House, and the Walt Whitman House. The homes are furnished with brass candlesticks on the mantles, English shaving mirrors, brass or pencil four-poster beds, traditional lighting fixtures and Dutch doors. In 1933 the dormitory building was added to house the inn´s employees. It served this purpose until 1961. The fifty-four-unit Motor House was completed in 1960.