Bistro Newsletter

It didn’t take me long to get to the Edsel & Eleanor Ford House. My sister, Christine, and I booked a tour there to celebrate my mom’s birthday on Sunday. It was a beautiful day to enjoy the entire property and take in the magnificent view of Lake St. Clare. Other than the main house, there is a pool, recreation house, garage, powerhouse, children’s play house (amazing!) and gardens to explore. A “newer” small museum up front, gift shop and restaurant complete the estate. We selected to do a guided tour of the main home which was well worth the $20 fee.

Edsel, the son of Henry Ford, and his wife Eleanor built their 30,000 square foot home in Grosse Pointe Shores in 1928, designed by Albert Kahn. The home was modeled after the English cottages they visited while on vacation, they even brought over a complete wooden staircase from a manor built in the 1500’s. The house is very formal, almost castle-like in some rooms, the dining room in particular which has no electricity as Eleanor preferred to dine by candlelight. After touring the home I’ve decided that she was the real boss of the Ford family. Her touches were everywhere. Except the kitchen… we were told she never went into the kitchen once it was designed. With a daily staff of 40, she didn’t need to. She did make sure the chefs had everything they needed, a French cooktop, the finest china, even sterling silver countertops. In 1938 there were some updates made to the home with fully “modern” art deco rooms. These were my favorites; I love the built in furniture and the streamlined look. The art on the walls is not to be missed, although some have been replaced by reproductions (the family donated much to the DIA after Eleanor died), many are still original works.  Edsel died at 49 and Eleanor continued to live in the home until 1976. The home is maintained by her legacy donation and continues to be restored to its original grandeur, with craftmanship and attention to detail. For instance, they used the same stone tiles from the original quarry in England to repair the roof.  I witnessed the Ford family carry on this same attention to detail during the restoration of the Michigan Central Train Station as well.

The Ford house has a few upcoming select tours of a behind the scenes look where they will allow you to tour the nooks and crannies of the home, seeing more of where the staff lived and worked. I would like to see this tour as well. Although the Ford family was known to take great care of their staff, I found the story of the lives of their inner circle to be quite sad. The governess lived in their home, with little privacy, time or space of her own. Their butler worked at the home 7 days a week, starting early, a 2-hour break to go home after lunch and then back to work until well in the evening, where he would sit with Eleanor, have a nightcap and discuss the days events and the upcoming days itinerary. I’m hoping he got more than a nip of sherry for that much attention to the lady of the house.

To round out the weekend, we lunched at The Charlevoix, excellent again! And I was invited to crash my Pickled Hen Janis’ 16-year-old daughter’s birthday slumber party. I see future hens in the making! Delightful, smart, charming young ladies. We swam, snacked and played games late into the night. Thanks for the invite Willow!
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Cheers,
Sharon