Lunch At and Tour of the Edsel and Eleanor Ford Estate

Saturday, August 27, 2016
After a late breakfast, we were off for Grosse Pointe Shores over on Lake St. Clair which is one of the connecting waters of the Great Lakes and part of the shipping line all the way from the Atlantic Ocean.  This town has many many large homes and estates owned by CEO's  and other well to do people in the Detroit area.  Edsel Ford (son of Henry and Clara Ford)

built his mansion here along with his wife Eleanor back in 1929 and moved in with their four children: Henry, Benson, Josephine, and William.  It has 3000 feet of lake frontage and sits on over 80 acres of land.  This is a map of the estate with numbers referring to various buildings and points of interest on the land.  The home is #1.

The three boys eventually were very involved in the operation of Ford Motor Company which is still today owned by the family.  Josephine enjoyed the arts as much as her parents and she along with her parents made the Detroit Institute of Arts the well known museum that it is.  Most of the art from the house has now been given to family members after making copies to put in their place or given to the museum itself.

The home has 60 rooms of which we visited just 20 -- all the ones most important to the family as their living quarters.  The help also lived with them and had their own rooms as well.  Several of the rooms were "renovated" in the middle 30s to achieve the more "modern look" of the time and while they are nice the main house is really much more of a turn of the century look with carved ceilings and moldings along with massive fireplaces, and carved wood pieces of furniture.  Much of the interior was purchased on trips to Europe from old mansions and monastaries.  And original art work came from all over the world much of it from the masters well known in the art world.  You are not allowed to take pictures within the house so I can't show any of that but this is the home itself from the land side.

And this side looks out at Lake St. Clair

This shot was taken as we walked on the grass from back to front

Unfortunately a huge storm was rapidly coming in as we finished up our tour with this walk so we couldn't get good views of the water since we were racing for cover and a bus to get us back to the parking lot.  But lots of ocean freighters ply these waters as well as plenty of sail boaters and speed boaters.  In fact, Edsel kept a speed boat in his boat house that he could use to get to work since it was faster to get there by water than by busy streets in the city.

Our whole day began at the Activities building which has been built to handle special events on the estate land.  Right next to that building is a beautiful butterfly garden with an enclosed structure filled with a variety of butterflies.  (below is just a segment of the full garden)

You can sit on the patio area and just enjoy the beauty of the flower garden or wander through the enclosure for an up close experience with the butterflies.  Several landed on me so I had the fun of really looking at them close up.

Once all of the present and past FERA (Ford Employee Recreation Association of which Ken in which Ken held all the offices including president  back when working at Ford) arrived - 120 in all, we were taken into the ballroom for lunch.  Once we had had time to get a drink, peruse the various items up for auction (this whole affair was to raise funds for the Leukemia Foundation of which Edsel Ford II is very involved), chat with friends and chat with Edsel Ford II,

 we found places to sit at round tables for eight.  We had sat down at a back table when friends Mark and Karen Krugman came and asked us to join them at the front table where Edsel Ford II and the present treasurer of FERA (and coordinator of this event) were sitting.  Here he is introducing Edsel who is talking with Mark.  The silent auction stuff can be seen as well.

Karen is a genealogist extrodinaire who speaks all over and loves researching.  She had just completed a book with all the Ford Family information including pictures of grave stones and newspaper clippings of obituaries and had Edsel autograph it.  He in turn ordered a couple of copies for himself.

 Edsel shared all kinds of stories from his memories of visits with his grandmother (Edsel died in his early 40s back in 1943) who lived in the house till her death in 1976 when it reverted to the trust she had created so it could be used and enjoyed by the community.

What fun it was to hear about he and his cousin Bill driving go carts around the grounds and enjoying family gatherings there.  He told us about an experience he had after he was married when his grandmother called and invited he and his wife to dinner that night.  It wasn't till later that it occured to him he needed to know how to dress that he called and asked and all she said was we always dress for dinner.  What she meant was in formal wear tuxedos and long dresses.  He told us how she went for a walk every morning to to the garage and then asked her chauffeur to take her back to the house as she would be "too windblown" if she walked back because of course there was always a breeze off the lake.  She never learned to drive because she felt there was no need since the chauffeur was always there to take her wherever she wished to go.

Once he finished, we divided in groups of 12 to take the tour of the house and grounds.  A bus took us to the house and our guides.  Once we were done with the house we toured some of the other buildings on the grounds starting with the swimming pool that was 115 feet long (longest in the country at that time) and 40 feet wide at its widest point.

Near by was the "Pool House" which was huge and a gathering spot for all kinds of recreational activities including having a handball court.

This was a lounging area inside the pool house

We walked through several of the gardens including the rose garden that had all colors of roses but red as Eleanor did not like red ones.

This whole green was bordered by a variety of trees creating a vary woodsy feeling to each side.

Then we stopped for a visit inside of Josephine's play house that was a gift from her grandparents Henry and Clara Ford on her 7th birthday.  It is a 3/4 size home with living room, kitchen, bathroom and bedroom.

Their is a great deal of special interest in the outside structure including nursery rhyme designs

From there we went to the gate house where there presently is a display of the wedding dresses worn by many members of the family including Eleanor

The gate house also includes the entry to the estate

and garage which is now housing autos from the past.

Eleanor's favorite car make especially for her by her oldest son Henry Ford II.

And of course a Mustang .............

Ken and I then walked back toward the mansion

A view from the side as we walked toward the water

This is the side facing Lake St. Clair

so we could walk along the waterfront and take some outside pictures of the home.  It started to thunder and the sky got very dark so we moved quickly, took a couple of pictures and then scooted around to the front door and got on a bus headed back to the guest area and parking lot.  The rain started in earnest just after we pulled out of the lot and came down in buckets making for a tough drive back to the campground!!!! 

But what a wonderful day.  We were ready to relax