Edison Institute Greenfield Village and Henry Ford Museum | |
Location | The Henry Ford 20900 Oakwood Boulevard at Village Road Dearborn, Michigan United States |
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Coordinates | 42°18′13″N83°14′03″W / 42.30361°N 83.23417°W |
Built | 1929 |
Architect | Robert O. Derrick |
Visitation | 1.7 million |
NRHP reference No. | 69000071 |
Significant dates | |
Added to NRHP | October 20, 1969 [1] |
Designated NHLD | December 21, 1981 [2] |
The Henry Ford (also known as the Henry Ford Museum of American Innovation and Greenfield Village, and as the Edison Institute) is a history museum complex in Dearborn, Michigan, United States, within Metro Detroit. [3] [4] The museum collection contains the presidential limousine of John F. Kennedy, Abraham Lincoln's chair from Ford's Theatre, Thomas Edison's laboratory, the Wright Brothers' bicycle shop, the Rosa Parks bus, and many other historical exhibits. It is the largest indoor–outdoor museum complex in the United States [5] and is visited by over 1.7 million people each year. [6] It was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1969 as Greenfield Village and Henry Ford Museum [1] and designated a National Historic Landmark in 1981 as "Edison Institute". [2]
Named for its founder, the automobile industrialist Henry Ford, and based on his efforts to preserve items of historical interest and portray the Industrial Revolution, the property houses homes, machinery, exhibits, and Americana of historically significant items as well as common memorabilia, both of which help to capture the history of life in early America. It is one of the largest such collections in the nation. [7]
Henry Ford said of his museum:
I am collecting the history of our people as written into things their hands made and used .... When we are through, we shall have reproduced American life as lived, and that, I think, is the best way of preserving at least a part of our history and tradition ... [8]
Architect Robert O. Derrick designed the museum with a 523,000 square feet (48,600 m2) exhibit hall that extends 400 feet (120 m) behind the main façade. The façade spans 800 feet (240 m) and incorporates facsimiles of three structures from Independence National Historical Park in Philadelphia – Old City Hall, Independence Hall and Congress Hall. [9] [10]
The Edison Institute was dedicated by President Herbert Hoover to Ford's longtime friend Thomas Edison on October 21, 1929 – the 50th anniversary of the first successful incandescent light bulb. The attendees included Marie Curie, George Eastman, John D. Rockefeller, Will Rogers, Orville Wright, and about 250 others. [11] The dedication was broadcast on radio with listeners encouraged to turn off their electric lights until the switch was flipped at the Museum. [12]
The Edison Institute was, at first, a private site for educational purposes only, but after numerous inquiries about the complex, it was opened as a museum to the general public on June 22, 1933. [13] It was originally composed of the Henry Ford Museum, Greenfield Village, and the Greenfield Village Schools (an experimental learning facility). Initially, Greenfield Village and the Henry Ford Museum were owned by the Ford Motor Company, which is currently a sponsor of the school and cooperates with the Henry Ford to provide the Ford Rouge Factory Tour. The Henry Ford is sited between the Ford Dearborn Development Center and several Ford engineering buildings with which it shares the same style gates and brick fences.
In 1970, the museum purchased what it believed to be a 17th-century Brewster Chair, created for one of the Pilgrim settlers in the Plymouth Colony, for $9,000. In September 1977, the chair was determined to be a modern forgery created in 1969 by Rhode Island sculptor Armand LaMontagne. [14] The museum retains the piece as an educational tool on forgeries. [15]
In the early 2000s, the museum added an auditorium to the building's south corner. This housed an IMAX theater until January 2016 when museum management decided to change formats for the facility to better fit with its mission. The renovated theater reopened in April of that year. [16]
The Henry Ford Museum of American Innovation began as Henry Ford's personal collection of historic objects, which he began collecting as far back as 1906. Today, the 12 acre (49,000 m2) site is primarily a collection of antique machinery, pop culture items, automobiles, locomotives, aircraft, and other items:
Behind the scenes, the Benson Ford Research Center uses the resources of The Henry Ford, especially the photographic, manuscript and archival material which is rarely displayed, to allow visitors to gain a deeper understanding of American people, places, events, and things. The Research Center also contains the Ford Motor Archives. [28]
To commemorate the 100th anniversary of the sinking of the RMS Titanic, the Henry Ford Museum exhibited a vast array of artifacts and media documenting the Titanic 's voyage and demise. The exhibit was hosted from 31 March to 30 September 2012.
External videos | |
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Tour of presidential vehicles on display, July 24, 2017, C-SPAN |
External videos | |
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Tour of the railroads exhibit, July 24, 2017, C-SPAN |
Greenfield Village, the outdoor living history museum section of the Henry Ford complex, was (along with the adjacent Henry Ford Museum) dedicated in 1929 and opened to the public in June 1933. [29] It was the first outdoor museum of its type in the nation, and served as a model for subsequent outdoor museums. [7] Patrons enter at the gate, passing by the Josephine Ford Memorial Fountain and Benson Ford Research Center. Nearly one hundred historical buildings were moved to the property from their original locations and arranged in a "village" setting. The museum's intent is to show how Americans have lived and worked since the founding of the country. The Village includes buildings from the 17th century to the present, many of which are staffed by costumed interpreters who conduct period tasks such as farming, sewing and cooking. A collection of craft buildings such as pottery, glass-blowing, and tin shops provide demonstrations while producing materials used in the Village and for sale. The Village features costumed and plain-clothed presenters to tell stories and convey information about the attractions. Some of these presenters are seasonal, such as the "games on the green" presenters who only operate in the summer. Greenfield Village has 240 acres (970,000 m2) of land of which only 90 acres (360,000 m2) are used for the attraction, the rest being forest, river and extra pasture for the sheep and horses.
External videos | |
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Tour of Henry Ford's garage and childhood home, July 24, 2017, C-SPAN |
Village homes, buildings, and attractions include:
There are various modes of historic transportation in the Village providing rides for visitors, which utilize authentic Ford Model Ts, a 1931 Ford Model AA bus (one of about 15 known to exist), horse-drawn omnibuses, and trains pulled by steam locomotives on the Weiser Railroad.
Overview | |
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Locale | Dearborn, Michigan, U.S. |
Dates of operation | 1929–present |
Technical | |
Track gauge | 1,435 mm (4 ft 8+1⁄2 in) |
Length | 2 miles (3.2 km) |
Weiser Railroad | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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The rail line on which the steam locomotives in Greenfield Village presently run originally consisted of a simple straight stretch of track along the northern edge of the museum property, and has been present ever since Greenfield Village was dedicated in 1929. The rail line, now named the Weiser Railroad, was later expanded into a continuous loop around the perimeter of the museum property, which was completed in stages between 1971 and 1972. [46] This 4 ft 8+1⁄2 in (1,435 mm) standard gauge passenger line is 2 miles (3.2 km) long and has four stations. All of the railroad's stations consist solely of single side platforms except for the station in the Railroad Junction section, which also includes the relocated Smiths Creek Depot building originally built for the Grand Trunk Railway in 1858. [47]
The line utilizes a modern replica of a Detroit, Toledo & Milwaukee Railroad (DT&M) roundhouse built in 1884 in Marshall, Michigan. [48] At the time it was opened to the public in 2000, the new DT&M Roundhouse replica was one of only seven working roundhouses open to the public in the United States. [49] A hand-operated Pere Marquette Railway turntable, originally built in 1901 in Petoskey, Michigan, is also in use. [50]
The railroad, unusual for a heritage railroad built purposely for tourism, has a direct connection to the United States National Railroad Network. The line to which it connects is a section of the Michigan Line owned by MDOT [51] and is used by Amtrak's Wolverine service, which runs between Chicago, Illinois, and Pontiac, Michigan. In the past, Amtrak's Greenfield Village station provided direct access to Greenfield Village near the Weiser Railroad's Smiths Creek Depot for reserved tour groups of twenty or more. It was consolidated in December 2014 with the new John D. Dingell Transit Center. The new transit center is adjacent to the Henry Ford museum complex and has a gate allowing access to the complex via a short walk. [52]
Number | Images | Name | Wheel arrangement | Year built | Builder | Original road | Status | Notes |
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3 | Torch Lake | 0-6-4T | 1873 | Mason Machine Works | Hecla & Torch Lake Railroad | Operational | Only surviving Mason Bogie locomotive in the world. Oldest operational locomotive in the U.S. as of 2021. [56] | |
1 | Edison | 4-4-0 | 1875 | Manchester Locomotive Works | Edison Portland Cement Company | Operational | Originally an 0-4-0, which was rebuilt into a 4-4-0 by Ford in 1932. | |
7 | 4-4-0 | 1897 | Baldwin Locomotive Works | Detroit & Lima Northern Railway | Operational | Henry Ford's personal locomotive. Donated by Henry Ford in 1930. Restored from 2007 to 2013. | ||
45 | 4-4-2 | 1902 | ALCO | Michigan Central Railroad | Display | Cosmetically restored. On static display in the roundhouse. | ||
1 | B | 1927 | Plymouth Locomotive Works | Mistersky Power Plant | Operational | Gasoline powered | ||
1 | B-B | 1942 | General Electric | United States Navy | Operational | 50-ton switcher | ||
Each year the Village honors the sacrifices and achievements of those who fought in the American Civil War. The Civil War Remembrance event takes place Memorial Day weekend (Saturday–Monday) every year. An estimated 750,000 people died during the Civil War. The Civil War Remembrance is a weekend event, which includes hundreds of Union and Confederate reenactors, musicians and historic presenters. This event features more than 400 Civil War reenactors who spend the entire weekend in the Village. Greenfield Village provides many opportunities in order to learn about the Civil War: exhibits, presentations, battle reenactments, concerts, short plays, hands-on activities and Q&A with historians. [57]
Motor Muster is one of two car shows that take place annually in Greenfield Village. Motor Muster is traditionally held on Father's Day weekend. This event currently features cars built from 1932 to 1976, and features between 600 and 800 cars. Special attractions include car judging, and Pass in Review in which experts discuss highlights of the passing cars.
Every summer the Henry Ford has a Summer Camp. It takes place inside Greenfield Village and the Henry Ford Museum between June and August. It is for children in grades 2–9. [58] Each grade level has a different theme and children who participate in the Summer Camp have the opportunity to look at both the Henry Ford Museum of American Innovation and Greenfield Village from different perspectives. Children participate in activities such as: apprenticeships, canoeing, glass blowing and other age-dependent activities.
The World Tournament of Historical Base Ball takes place every year in August. Guests get to take a step back in time to 1867 as vintage base ball clubs from around the country compete by the game's early rules in a two-day exposition of historic base ball. [59] The clubs engage in two days of throwing, batting and competition. The event is included in Greenfield Village admission. [60]
For four nights around Independence Day, the Detroit Symphony Orchestra performs a patriotic concert on Walnut Grove in the Village. Attendance ranges from 5000 to 9500 per evening.
This weekend event in July was first presented in 2007 and ran annually through 2015. Ragtime Street Fair featured dozens of live performers, including the River Raisin Ragtime Revue, "Perfessor" Bill Edwards, Mike Montgomery, Nan Bostick, Taslimah Bey, John Remmers, and Tartarsauce Traditional Jazz Band, who celebrated the Ragtime era (ca. 1900–1917). The event also featured silent movies, phonograph demonstrations, a cake walk, a cutting contest, and a musical revue in Town Hall as well as the 1912 presidential campaign of Theodore Roosevelt. Instruction in the ragtime one-step was provided free of charge at this event.
The Old Car Festival takes place every year in September. The Old Car Festival has been held on the first weekend after Labor Day since 1955. The festival takes over the streets and grounds of Greenfield Village with the sights, sounds, and smells of hundreds of authentic vehicles from the 1890s through 1932. [61] This event features 500–700 cars. Special events include car judging, Pass in Review, the gaslight tour, and car races on the Walnut Grove field. Guests can take a self-guided tour of the exposition and talk to the owners of the treasured vehicles. Visitors can watch a Model T be assembled in just minutes, attend presentations, and hear experts share information about the vintage vehicles. [58]
The Village's Halloween celebration features decorations, a headless horseman, witches, other costumed characters, treats and activities for visitors. It is held Thursday, Friday, Saturday and Sunday evenings in October. [62]
The Christmas season has traditionally been popular in Greenfield Village. Many buildings feature period decorations and the Village is open for self-guided strolls. An ice skating rink is available. Visitors can view live entertainment and costumed presenters or ride in a horse-drawn carriage or Model T. [63]
The Ford Rouge Factory Tour is a first-hand journey behind the scenes of a modern, working automobile factory. Boarding buses at the Henry Ford Museum, visitors are taken to the River Rouge Plant and Dearborn Truck Plant, an industrial complex where Ford has built cars since the Model A that once employed 100,000 people. [64]
In 2003, the Ford Rouge Factory, the manufacturing facility for the Ford F-Series truck, reopened following extensive renovations. When it reopened in 2003, as sustainable architecture (Gold LEED Building) led by noted 'green' architect William McDonough, it also opened a new state-of-the-art visitor center highlighting the factory's sustainable aspects and educating visitors on the legacy of the historic manufacturing facility as well as the vehicle manufacturing process that takes place within the manufacturing plant. The visitor experiences, designed by award-winning experience designer Bob Rogers and the design team BRC Imagination Arts, [65] offers two multi-screen theaters, numerous touchscreen interpretive displays and overlook the world's largest "Green" roof, atop the factory. Visitors then walk through the working assembly plant. [66]
Dearborn is a city in Wayne County, Michigan, United States. It is an inner-ring suburb in Metro Detroit, bordering Detroit to the south and west, and roughly 7 miles (11.3 km) west of downtown Detroit. In the 2020 census, it had a population of 109,976, ranking as the seventh-most populous city in Michigan. Dearborn is best known as the hometown of the Ford Motor Company and of its founder, Henry Ford.
The Detroit, Toledo and Ironton Railroad operated from 1905 to 1983 between its namesake cities of Detroit, Michigan, and Ironton, Ohio, via Toledo. At the end of 1970, it operated 478 miles of road on 762 miles of track; that year it carried 1,244 million ton-miles of revenue freight.
Fair Lane was the estate of Ford Motor Company founder Henry Ford and his wife, Clara Ford, in Dearborn, Michigan, in the United States. It was named after an area in Cork in Ireland where Ford's adoptive grandfather, Patrick Ahern, was born. The 1,300-acre (530 ha) estate along the River Rouge included a large limestone house, an electrical power plant on the dammed river, a greenhouse, a boathouse, riding stables, a children's playhouse, a treehouse, and extensive landmark gardens designed by Chicago landscape architect Jens Jensen.
The River Rouge is a 127-mile river in the Metro Detroit area of southeastern Michigan. It flows into the Detroit River at Zug Island, which is the boundary between the cities of River Rouge and Detroit.
The Thomas Edison Center at Menlo Park, also known as the Menlo Park Museum / Edison Memorial Tower, is a memorial to inventor and businessman Thomas Alva Edison, located in the Menlo Park area of Edison, Middlesex County, New Jersey. The tower was dedicated on February 11, 1938, on what would have been the inventor's 91st birthday.
The Ford River Rouge complex is a Ford Motor Company automobile factory complex located in Dearborn, Michigan, along the River Rouge, upstream from its confluence with the Detroit River at Zug Island. Construction began in 1917, and when it was completed in 1928, it was the largest integrated factory in the world, surpassing Buick City, built in 1904.
Carillon Historical Park is a 65-acre park and museum in Dayton, Ohio, which contains historic buildings and exhibits concerning the history of technology and the history of Dayton and its residents from 1796 to the present. As a part of the University of Dayton, the historical elements of the park were the brainchild of Colonel Edward Deeds. The major sections include settlement, transportation, invention, and industry. The park also contains the Carillon Park Railroad, a 7+1⁄2 in gauge miniature railway.
The Detroit and Mackinac Railway, informally known as the "Turtle Line", was a railroad in the northeastern part of the Lower Peninsula of the U.S. state of Michigan. The railroad had its main offices and shops in Tawas City with its main line running from Bay City north to Cheboygan, and operated from 1894 to 1992. In 1946, it became the first all diesel haul railroad in the United States.
This is a list of the National Register of Historic Places listings in Wayne County, Michigan.
The John D. Dingell Transit Center, also known as the Dearborn Transit Center, is an intermodal transit station in Dearborn, Michigan. It is served by Amtrak's Wolverine line as well as Suburban Mobility Authority for Regional Transportation (SMART) buses. The station is named after former U.S. Representative John Dingell.
Tourism in metropolitan Detroit, Michigan is a significant factor for the region's culture and for its economy, comprising nine percent of the area's two million jobs. About 19 million people visit Metro Detroit spending an estimated 6 billion in 2019. In 2009, this number was about 15.9 million people, spending an estimated $4.8 billion. Detroit is one of the largest American cities and metropolitan regions to offer casino resort hotels. Leading multi-day events throughout Metro Detroit draw crowds of hundreds of thousands to over three million people. More than fifteen million people cross the highly traveled nexus of the Ambassador Bridge and the Detroit-Windsor Tunnel annually. Detroit is at the center of an emerging Great Lakes Megalopolis. An estimated 46 million people live within a 300-mile (480 km) radius of Metro Detroit.
Springwells Township is a defunct civil township in Wayne County, in the U.S. state of Michigan. All of the land is now incorporated as part of the cities of Detroit and Dearborn. Springwells is also famously known as the birthplace of Henry Ford.
The Steam Railroading Institute is located at 405 South Washington Street, Owosso, Michigan. It was founded in 1969 as the Michigan State University (MSU) Railroad Club. It became the Michigan State Trust for Railway Preservation, and later adopted its present name.
The Boston–Edison Historic District is a neighborhood located in Detroit, Michigan. It consists of over 900 homes built on four east-west streets: West Boston Boulevard, Chicago Boulevard, Longfellow Avenue and Edison Avenue, stretching from Woodward Avenue in the east to Linwood Avenue in the west. It is one of the largest residential historic districts in the nation. It is surrounded by Sacred Heart Major Seminary to the west, the Arden Park-East Boston Historic District and the Cathedral of the Most Blessed Sacrament to the east, and the Atkinson Avenue Historic District to the south. The district was designated a Michigan State Historic Site in 1973 and listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1975.
The Dearborn Inn, A Marriott Hotel is a historic hotel in the suburban city of Dearborn, Michigan in Metro Detroit. It opened in 1931 and closed in February 2023 for renovations. It was conceived by Henry Ford, who saw a need for food and accommodations for visitors flying into the nearby Ford Airport, making it one of the first airport hotels. It is located at 20301 Oakwood Boulevard near The Henry Ford Museum of American Innovation and the world headquarters building of Ford Motor Company. Albert Kahn designed the Dearborn Inn in the Georgian architectural style. The Dearborn Inn is owned by Ford Motor Land Development Corporation and managed by Marriott International.
The following outline provides an overview of and topical guide to the U.S. state of Michigan:
Greenfield Village was an Amtrak station in Dearborn, Michigan served by the Wolverine. It closed to regular seasonal service in 2006 and to all service in 2014. The station had a single side platform serving one of the two tracks of the Michigan Line. A pedestrian crossing from the platform led to The Henry Ford at Smiths Creek Depot on the parallel Weiser Railroad.
Light's Golden Jubilee was a celebration of the 50th anniversary of Thomas Edison's incandescent light bulb, held on October 21, 1929, just days before the stock market crash of 1929 that swept the United States headlong into the Great Depression. The Jubilee also served as the dedication of Henry Ford's Greenfield Village, originally known as the Thomas Edison Institute.
The Edison State Park is located in the Menlo Park section of Edison, New Jersey. It is located on Christie Street, the first street in the world to be lit up by lightbulb, just off Lincoln Highway, near the Metropark Train Station. It covers a total area of 37 acres (0.15 km2). The park commemorates the site where the famous inventor Thomas Alva Edison had his Menlo Park laboratory. In his laboratory, Edison invented over 600 inventions such as the incandescent electric light and the phonograph, the latter being the first object to record and play sound.
Clara Jane Bryant Ford was a suffragist and the wife of Henry Ford. She was inducted into the Michigan Women's Hall of Fame.
Built in 1929 in Greenfield Village. Some structural elements from original complex in Menlo Park, New Jersey.
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