Exploring History: My Summer Vacation

[chefann]

What I did on my Summer vacation




One of the members of the car club to which DH and I belong put together a day driving event for us yesterday. We had a blast, and I thought some people (read "KG") would be interested in a few of the pics.

The day started with breakfast at the local Big Boy. Then we headed a couple miles down the road to the Eleanor and Edsel Ford Estate. Edsel was the only child of Henry and Clara Ford. He married Eleanor Clay, who was raised in Detroit by her uncle, J.L. Hudson, founder of the Hudson's department store chain and Hudson automobiles. After they had been married for a while and had 4 children, they decided to build a home on the shore of Lake St. Clair. They went to England to research architecture and interiors. This is the result:

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It's a 60-room home made of stone, with a limestone roof in the Cotswold style from west of London. The home is filled with beautiful art and collectibles, some of which are thousands of years old. (no lie! The docent pointed out one carving from Mexico that was dated somewhere between 100 BC and 100 AD.) The family played games at an 18-century games table, on authentic Queen Anne chairs, in the library which had over 1300 books, many of them first editions. There's also a lamp in that room that's made from a Ming-dynasty Chinese vase.

Unfortunately, we couldn't take pictures inside the buildings.

From the estate, we drove along Jefferson, which follows the shore of Lake St. Claire, to the town of St. Claire, where we had a picnic lunch and stopped at an ice cream parlor. Then we continued to Marysville and a small car museum there.

The museum is to showcase the cars manufactured by the Wills Sainte Claire company, which was started in the 1920s by the first employee of Ford. He left Ford and took his $1.5 million severance pay (!) and started his own company. (BTW, that severance was on top of the several million he had made through profit-sharing while he was employed at Ford.)

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[Bren706]

Very interesting. Thanks for sharing, Ann! It sounds like you had a great day.

 

[pamperedlinda]

Love the house!

 

[chefann]

The pics don't do the house justice. The rooms are gorgeous, and they're all preserved as they were at the time of Eleanor's death. Much of the art are now reproductions, as a lot of it was donated to the Detroit Institute of Art when she died. Some of the rooms are paneled with sections of paneling that were brought to the States from England and were carved in the 1500s. We did an "Attics and cellars" tour of the house a few years back. That one went into the staff quarters, basements, and down the tunnel that connects the house with the powerhouse.

 

[KellyTheChef]

I love, love, love touring old homes! I bet you had a BLAST!

 

[chefshawna]

Wow, I bet the inside was great! Too bad you couldn't take any pics, but I'm sure they're worried about theft! I love old homes too.