  Designerguy24 Member Username: Designerguy24 Post Number: 120 Registered: 10-2006 |
Just visited there home in Grosse Point Shores. I'd like to get your thoughts, comments, etc on the house and them. | ||
Detroitrise Member Username: Detroitrise Post Number: 2020 Registered: 09-2007 |
Well, Edsel has a local interstate named after him, and they were close relatives to the late great Henry Ford.  | ||
Oldredfordette Member Username: Oldredfordette Post Number: 4472 Registered: 02-2004 |
We can thank Edsel for the modern art at the DIA and particularly the Diego Rivera murals. | ||
Oldredfordette Member Username: Oldredfordette Post Number: 4475 Registered: 02-2004 |
The Deuce fired Bennett. Edsel was actually a pretty good guy, ground into dust by his N*zi loving father. | ||
Detroitnerd Member Username: Detroitnerd Post Number: 2235 Registered: 07-2004 |
D'oh! You're right, Oldred! I take back every nice thing I said about Edsel! | ||
Andylinn Member Username: Andylinn Post Number: 831 Registered: 04-2006 |
Edsel is the "greatest" Ford to ever live in terms of philanthropy. He and his wife MADE the DIA... | ||
56packman Member Username: 56packman Post Number: 2213 Registered: 12-2005 |
Edsel was under a lot of psychological trauma from his father, who never gave his only child the respect a bright, hardworking child should have. Edsel persuaded his father to finally abandon the model T for the more contemporary model A, and his influence in the purchase of Lincoln from Henry M. Leyland was right on the mark. Edsel's greatest contribution to the company was as an arbiter of good taste. Initially at Lincoln and beginning with the model A his influence in the styling of Ford cars was instrumental in the perfection that the 1933-1937 Fords embodied. Edsel gave E.T Gregorie (stylist) the freedom to create beautiful cars, in a way his father could never appreciate. There isn't a single line on those cars that could be improved. | ||
Mackinaw Member Username: Mackinaw Post Number: 4703 Registered: 02-2005 |
The house is fantastic, like everything Kahn built. It was a really a remote country getaway when they built it; it is of roaring 20s vintage, and the commutable portions of GP that were getting built up at that time were all S/W of Moross, so this locale was way out there. There are several homes of similar vintage and style, but none that are quite that big, throughout GP. If you are unfamiliar with the cities or just don't know where all of these are, I'd be happy to point you to them. | ||
Xd_brklyn Member Username: Xd_brklyn Post Number: 391 Registered: 10-2003 |
For many years under Henry Ford, there wasn't even a design department. According to Linda Down's book on the Detroit murals, Rivera's oil portrait of Edsel was done in a hidden design studio in the HP Briggs building so the old man wouldn't know what he was doing. Though I don't know how secret it could have been at the time of Rivera's stay in 1932 if the 1933 Fords were right around the corner. | ||
Spacemonkey Member Username: Spacemonkey Post Number: 473 Registered: 03-2006 |
Edsel is a weird name. | ||
Pkbroch Member Username: Pkbroch Post Number: 14 Registered: 02-2008 |
The 1939-1941 Lincoln Continental is Edsel Ford's most famous automobile. Attached is a brief history of the Car. http://auto.howstuffworks.com/ 1941-lincoln-continental-cabri olet.htm The last time I was at the house they had a silver Continental in the Garage Carriage house in the front of the estate. It was on a garage turnstile so that when Mrs. Edsel Ford pulled in the turntable would rotate so she did not have to back out of the garage. Really great gate and carriage house. | ||
The_rock Member Username: The_rock Post Number: 2294 Registered: 11-2003 |
I believe that Edsel's son, Henry Ford II, fired Bennett, not Edsel. Edsel died before Bennett was canned. My Mother's Great Aunt Josephine Gaukler sold Henry Ford the property that later became the home of Edsel and Eleanor Ford as Henry did not want to live there. He built FairLane and resided there. The original Gaukler Cottage was moved from the property when the mansion was constructed and the cottage remains today as a private residence on Doremus Street in SCS, just North of the Estate. | ||
Gistok Member Username: Gistok Post Number: 6735 Registered: 08-2004 |
OK, since I've had to take 4 bus loads of German visitors (in the last 5 years) on a tour of the Ford House, it has left me with a plethora of Ford House trivia... Mrs. Ford also had a custom made black Lincoln (also in the Garage Carriage House) that had a custom taller roof so that she could get into the car without knocking off her hat! The Ford house property has (including the Ford Cove frontage) a total of 3,100 feet of waterfront. The property across Lakeshore from the Ford House was also part of the estate. Mrs. Ford didn't want snoopy neighbors knowing who was coming or going. Edsel was 49 when he died in 1943, supposedly of stomach cancer. William Clay Ford Sr. is the last survivor of the Ford children to have lived in the house. When Anna Thompson Dodge (widow of Horace Dodge) died in 1970 at the age of 103, her palatial French Renaissance mansion (Rose Terrace), was gutted and razed. Mrs. Ford was so appalled by this wiping out of automotive family history (especially of a mansion neary twice the size of the Ford house), that she established a foundation (before her death) to save her house for posterity. This endowment included millions in Ford stock. The grounds of the Ford house were designed by famous landscape designer Jens Jensson. Unfortunately the Ford property lost hundreds of Ash trees in recent years to the Emerald Ash Borer. However, fortunately most of those trees were in the back of the property (near the Visitors Center), and away from the main vistas around the house. Of all the great paintings in the house (Cezanne, Renoir, Van Gogh, Degas), most are in the DIA, with duplicates hanging in the house. Of the 3 major paintings not at the DIA, Cezanne's Mt. St. Victoire is still in the green paneled living room, as is a Degas dance scene. The Renoir (a duplicate is in the living room) was obtained by Henry Ford II (each of the 4 Ford children received a major painting). Unfortunately Henry II sold it soon after his mother died in 1976, and got $18 million at auction. The other children all donated their works to the DIA. The Renoir is the Ford house's only major loss (not counting DIA works). | ||
Jjaba Member Username: Jjaba Post Number: 6416 Registered: 11-2003 |
Edsel, an automobile made by Ford Motor Company, 1958, 1959, 1960 was one of the most spectacular failures in automotive history. Wrong car at the wrong time. Too big when small was in. George Walker and Bud Kaufman were two of the designers who are credited with it. Sadly, they went down in infamy. The manufacturing was done in several plants as an afterthought to the main mission of the plant. So you can just imagine all the confusion on the plant floor. "We ordered five tires!" We ordered 4 fenders!" "Wrong engine, etc." Factory errors and marketing errors are so documented that Edsel is a subject of many business text books in college. jjaba. | ||
Gnome Member Username: Gnome Post Number: 1139 Registered: 08-2007 |
quote: says, Spacemonkey, hmmm | ||
Patrick Member Username: Patrick Post Number: 5353 Registered: 10-2003 |
I have taken numerous tours of it. I even had to interview one of the managers for a project last semester. The house is huge at I think 30,000 square feet. The estate had a separate hall building for receptions and parties. No events are held within the house since it is too risky. The place is a money pit in regards to the cost to heat it, but I guess it is really cool in the summer. Eleanor Ford tried to sell it in the late 40’s or early 50’s but no one could afford the taxes and upkeep. She knew that if sold, it would have been subdivided. I can’t even imagine how much the taxes would be on that property today. Probably close to half mil. There were a number of similar estates built in the area. James Couzens, Alfred Fisher, William Fisher, John Dodge, Emory Ford, Joseph Schlotman and a few others built grand homes in the same vein as the Ford Estate. | ||
Sturge Member Username: Sturge Post Number: 245 Registered: 05-2007 |
I liked the daughter's playhouse. | ||
Raggedclaws Member Username: Raggedclaws Post Number: 179 Registered: 08-2006 |
A visit to Dearborn's Automotive Hall of Fame will put Henry Ford's contribution to the auto industry into context. Karl Benz Panhard & Levassor Duryea Bros. and my personal fave, Ransome Olds. Henry who ? Edsel was robbed. | ||
Pam Member Username: Pam Post Number: 3994 Registered: 11-2005 |
Does anyone have a pic of their first house in Indian Village? | ||
Designerguy24 Member Username: Designerguy24 Post Number: 121 Registered: 10-2006 |
2171 Iroquois St is there address in Detroit | ||
Mackinaw Member Username: Mackinaw Post Number: 4704 Registered: 02-2005 |
2171 Iroquois St. was the spot. I think it may have been pointed out to me before, but I don't have a photo handy. | ||
Gistok Member Username: Gistok Post Number: 6737 Registered: 08-2004 |
Patrick... there was also the Glancy and McAuley estates... fantastic houses reminiscent of the English Cotswolds. Interestingly enough the Ford house is NOT air conditioned. That is surprising when one thinks of all the treasures in the house that are continually subjected to the summer humidity along Lake St. Clair. | ||
Bratt Member Username: Bratt Post Number: 736 Registered: 01-2004 |
Gistok...do I know you? 4 bus loads for tours? I think I may know you. | ||
Patrick Member Username: Patrick Post Number: 5360 Registered: 10-2003 |
After Iroquois, they moved to jefferson Ave on the spot where the UAW HQ stands today. Edsel was pissed that Alen park Towers were built next door and they were gone within a few years. However, they had Leonard Willeke redesign the whole estate with gardens, entry foyer and more. I think a lot of the wood panelling from Iroquois was taken to the Jefferson manse. I know that the front foor and lightposts were diaplyed at the DIA for a period during the 20's. | ||
Jams Member Username: Jams Post Number: 8529 Registered: 10-2003 |
The Ford boathouse is still there, as well as the cement "fence-posts", although the UAW replaced the fencing a few years ago. | ||
Mikem Member Username: Mikem Post Number: 3616 Registered: 10-2003 |
quote: With pistol in hand from what I've heard. quote: My grandmother was a secretary at the funeral home. She always told us of how Edsel spent his last night in the garage of the home with his tuxedo ripped in half up the back. Her way of reminding us no matter how rich or famous you all go out the same way. | ||
56packman Member Username: 56packman Post Number: 2215 Registered: 12-2005 |
Xd_brklyn--the Briggs building in HP was the old Ford Highland park plant. After Ford opened the new Rouge plant for model A production the Highland Park plant was partially converted to Fordson tractor production, but they still had lots of room to spare. Briggs had a terrible fire in 1927 at their Harper ave. plant, very significant loss of life in that blaze. They had been producing bodies for Ford at Harper, and needed space. Ford leased 800,000 sq. ft. of space to Briggs, and Briggs produced many Chrysler bodies form that plant. I have to retract what I said about E.T.Gregorie and the '32-'37 Fords, those were indeed designed by the Briggs design staff, many of whom worked in the company's LeBaron studio, the limited production custom body maker Briggs owned. GM really didn't have a design staff before Harley Earl was brought east from California to head the GM "Art and colour" department, the first GM (and American) car completely styled from the beginning was the 1927 LaSalle. Prior to that it was pretty much "form follows function" to he extreme. At some companies an engineer would design a connecting rod one day, a fender the next. Old Henry couldn't understand the function of styling, hell-he wanted to just keep building model Ts! | ||
Jjaba Member Username: Jjaba Post Number: 6418 Registered: 11-2003 |
56packman is right, BUT, Henry Ford was saving every working man a lot of money by building good cheap cars with interchangable parts on a moving assembly line. He built some 30 assembly plants around the USA and by shipping parts cheaply by rail, they could be assembled locally. There were plenty of pretty-boy design shops that tried to build and sell cars. A list of the dead is as long as your arm, eh. jjaba. | ||
Exmotowner Member Username: Exmotowner Post Number: 483 Registered: 06-2005 |
Sturge, on one of my visits to the mansion, I remarked to a lady friend while in the "playhouse", "wouldnt you like to have had this to play in when you were little"? and I was quickly told "this is NOT a PLAY house, but a place to teach Josephine to run her home and her servants". (but that lady may have just been saying that). Also, is it true that each of the four children received 300 million dollars when Elenore died? Another question. My last visit (last year) we were told that HF II chose the painting by Cesane (sp) named "A cup of chocolate" and sold it for, I thought, the lady said 48 million? I could be wrong on that number. Someone please correct me if Im wrong. Im still getting over Josephine's weather vein selling for 5.8 million. LOL All of the children are dead correct? | ||
Gnome Member Username: Gnome Post Number: 1145 Registered: 08-2007 |
William Clay Ford is hooked to a machine someplace. http://www.muckety.com/Edsel-B -Ford/4513.muckety click on the various names and numerous interconnections arise. |
