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 (530Â 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.
Fair Lane from the Rouge River side
John Burroughs grotto, Henry Ford Estate
View of back of house from across the river
Power house
Henry Ford was an American industrialist and business magnate. As the founder of the Ford Motor Company he is credited as a pioneer in making automobiles affordable for middle-class Americans through the system that came to be known as Fordism. In 1911 he was awarded a patent for the transmission mechanism that would be used in the Model T and other automobiles.
Portrait by Fred Hartsook, c. 1919
Henry Ford in 1888 (aged 25)
Henry Ford with Thomas Edison and Harvey S. Firestone. Fort Myers, Florida, February 11, 1929.
Ford assembly line, 1913