Locations

This beautifully restored firehouse at the corner of Cross and Huron streets in Ypsilanti features a number of antique fire trucks and memorabilia. This unique historical collection also features the country's largest collection of antique fire truck bells.

A.B.C. Hardy was a man determined to steer Flint's carriage makers to turn to automobile production after vacationing in Europe and noticing the advancment of automobiles there. On his own, Hardy founded the Flint Automobile Company in 1901 to expand on the every growing automobile industry. 

As Flint started to become a hot spot for the state, more and more community events grew with General Motors' sponsorship of the events. Events such as the annual Easter concerts, baseball games, and of course General Motors celebrating anniversaries, milestones, and achievements within the community. 

During the early decades of the 20th Century, Kearsley Street had several country estates built on the street's east end. The street was lined with large Victorian homes built by Dallas Dort and Charles Mott. 

Wyoming Avenue has a vivid industrial history. Brick-making flourished in the 1800s as companies like Clippert, Haggerty, and Mercier took advantage of the area's rich clay deposits. Automakers competing with Ford later came to this east side of Dearborn. Graham-Paige Motor Car Company operated a plant at Warren and Wyoming Avenues from the late 1920s through World War II. After the war, Chrysler purchased Graham-Paige and built DeSotos at the Dearborn Warren Avenue plant until1958.

The ford Rotunda is a lost landmark that is still remembered fondly. Architect Albert Kahn—who designed many Ford factories and buildings- designed the building for Ford's exhibit at the 1933–34 "Century of Progress" World's Fair in Chicago. Kahn designed the building's exterior with grooved and stacked lines to suggest the look of automobile gears. After the fair, the 110-foot-tall, 214-foot-wide Rotunda was reassembled in Dearborn. The Rotunda hosted meetings, banquets, auto exhibits, and seasonal displays for many years until a fire destroyed the building in 1962.

This Morley Avenue neighborhood has a special history. In the early 1800s, the U.S. government purchased this land near the Rouge River for a frontier military reserve and arsenal. When the arsenal closed in 1875, the land was sold and subdivided for development. Many of Dearborn's early business entrepreneurs and prominent personalities built homes in the neighborhood in the late 1800s and early 1900s. Many of their homes still stand in the Morley Avenue Residential Area.

Conditions were ripe for the rise of unionism in the Depression-ravaged 1930s. Ford Motor Company was the last of the "Big Three" to unionize. The turning point came on May 26, 1937, when Ford security men brutally beat UAW organizers at the "Battle of the Overpass" in Dearborn. Local 600 formed in 1938 and initiated a crippling strike at the Rouge Plant. The union's efforts produced a new contract signed in 1941. 

It was a gift for his hometown. Henry Ford developed an 18-hole golf course at Outer Drive and Military Street that opened in 1925. With the course designed by Donald Ross and the clubhouse designed by architect Albert Kahn, Ford wanted to put Dearborn on par with affluent enclaves like "The Pointes" and "The Hills." But he wanted the golf course open to everyone.

The Chicago Road was the way to go west from Detroit. It became known as Michigan Avenue, starting in Detroit and becoming the main street in early Dearbornville -- home of the Detroit Arsenal beginning in 1833.