Birthplace of Ford Automobile

Birthplace of Ford Automobile is a Michigan historical marker in Detroit, Wayne County, dedicated 1980.

220 Bagley Street, Detroit

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This marker commemorates the birthplace of the Ford Motor car. Here, in 1892, Henry Ford began experimenting with the motorized vehicle in his workshop, a small one-story brick structure, once located on this site. His invention was quite simple compared to today’s automobiles. It consisted of a two-cylinder machine, mounted in a light frame geared to bicycle wheels. That unpretentious auto was the start of the Ford Motor Company, which played a major part in the automobile industry that changed the face of Michigan and the world.

TodayHistorical map

Slide toward Today to fade the historical sheet and see the modern map underneath.

David Rumsey Map Collection, Stanford Libraries

Historical maps covering this location

1873 · (Map of Wayne County, Michigan) (David Rumsey Map Collection, Stanford Libraries)
1874 · Plan of Detroit (David Rumsey Map Collection, Stanford Libraries)
1894 · Chart of Detroit River (Digital Commonwealth, Boston Public Library)
1897 · Detroit, vicinity. (David Rumsey Map Collection, Stanford Libraries)
1903 · Detroit and Vicinity. (David Rumsey Map Collection, Stanford Libraries)

Detroit, vicinity, 1897, covering the location of Birthplace of Ford Automobile, with a pin at the marker's coordinates — Detroit, vicinity, 1897, covering this location. David Rumsey Map Collection, Stanford Libraries. The pin is ours, placed from the marker's coordinates.

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Marker data: Michigan History Center
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