Locations

There has always been a lot to stop for here. In the 1800s, the Six Mile Inn was a rural rest stop here along the Chicago Road (today's Michigan Avenue) from Detroit. But the development nearby in the early 1900s of Ford Motor Company's massive Rouge industrial complex changed everything. The Michigan / Schaefer neighborhood grew with the Ford workforce, becoming one of suburban Wayne County's main commercial centers, including department stores, a movie theater, City Hall and restaurants. 

East Downtown Dearborn is "the neighborhood the Rouge Plant built," and its fortunes have been tied to Ford Motor Company. Ford taxes generated much of the income used to build the impressive Georgian Revival-style building, which opened on June 26, 1922, as the Springwells Township Hall. Today it serves as the East Wing of Dearborn City Hall.

Henry ford bui It the City of Dearborn. His business interests drove the consolidation of the City of Fordson and the City of Dearborn in 1929. To the east were the Ford Rouge Plant and the Ford administrative building. To the west were Ford's airport, Ford Engineering and Research, and the new Edison Institute (now named The Henry Ford). 

One of historys great scientists worked here. George Washington Carver and Henry Ford agreed that plants like soybeans, peanuts, cotton, and rubber could be good for health and industry. Henry Ford had this former waterworks building outfitted as a research facility for Carver's visit to Dearborn in December 1942. The building included food and chemical laboratories, a library, vegetable storage, and an experimental kitchen, and Carver spent much time here during his two-week visit. Carver died a few weeks later in Alabama. 

This distinctive neighborhood was born in 1919 and 1920. In those years, Henry Ford built 156 homes for sale to his Dearborn Fordson Tractor Plant employees. The two-story, three- and four-bedroom homes were built with the most current materials and designs, and they cost between $8,750-$9,550. Henry, Clara and Edsel Ford financed the houses through Dearborn Realty and Construction Company. The homes, along Park, Nona, Beech, Military, Francis, Edison, Gregory and Olmstead streets, were within walking distance of the tractor plant.

Henry Ford gave "The Flats" to Dearborn, the city that framed his life. He was home in 1863 in the Scotch Settlement area, near present-day Ford and Greenfield roads, and died in 1947 at his estate at Fair Lane along the Rouge River. After his success in the automobile industry, he purchased large tracts of land here. Ford Field, originally called "The Flats," was one of these—a popular recreation area along the Rouge River. 

Dearborn was an outpost on the western frontier. Because of expansion from Detroit and Indian disturbances to the west, in 1833 the federal government began construction of an arsenal on its military reserve land near where the old Sank Trail crossed the Rouge River. The strategic Detroit Arsenal at Dearbornville offered easy access to Detroit and to military objectives to the south and west by land and by water. The buildings and land were sold after the arsenal closed in 1875.

Dearborn has long been a transportation hub, first by water and land, later by rail, air and automobile. The Rouge and Detroit rivers provided water transport to the Great Lakes. Major overland routes included the Sauk Trail (later the Chicago Road, and now Michigan Avenue), followed in the 1830s by the Michigan Central Railroad. Auto and truck traffic on Michigan Avenue, Telegraph Road and 1-94 has connected Dearborn with destinations in all directions. Air transportation first arrived in 1925 at Henry Ford's Dearborn Airport and thrives at nearby Detroit Metro Airport. 

Witness the site of Michigan’s first airport. After serving as a testing ground for military and personal aircraft, people often visited for exciting air shows until the airport closed in 1951.

For 36 years, the Gratiot Drive-In entertained visitors with movies, Fourth of July fireworks and even a waterfall facing the drive-in entrance. The drive-in no longer stands, but it once filled nights with memories for moviegoers.