The Many Homes of Ford on the American Road

Ford is getting a brand-new headquarters - the latest in the line of buildings the Blue Oval has called "home" over the years.

In a way, you could say our first home was Henry Ford's house on Bagley Avenue, where he developed the Quadracycle in the garage in 1896. But when the company was incorporated in 1903, the initial headquarters was located on Mack Avenue, where the first Model A was assembled. A replica of that building has actually been on display for decades to visitors of Dearborn's Greenfield Village!

We quickly outgrew that building, and the company moved to the larger Piquette Avenue Ford Plant, where we began to produce the different "alphabet" cars. The famous Model T was conceived as a skunkworks project in a secret room on the third floor, and thousands were produced as America fell in love with the Tin Lizzy. The Piquette Avenue Ford Plant is still standing and operates as a museum, telling the story of early automobile production and the development of the Model T.

From Piquette, we moved to Highland Park where construction on the site began in 1908, and vehicle production began in 1910. Designed by noted industrial architect Albert Kahn, Highland Park was nicknamed "The Crystal Palace" because of the extensive use of windows for lighting. With the development of the modern assembly line, production soared, and thousands of Model Ts were assembled each day.

Following the construction of the Rouge plant, management moved to the Administration Building off Schaeffer Road in 1928. With the famous Rotunda building adjacent and the mighty Rouge nearby, this was the seat of power for Ford Motor Company. One interesting fact that I learned about this building was that it even had a vegetable storage area!

Ford is often credited with opening the roads of America via the Model T, so as we celebrated our 50th anniversary in 1953, we used the slogan, "Fifty Years Forward on the American Road."

In fact, when the "Glass House" was opened a few years later 1956, we made the street address "The America Road" to celebrate our role in American culture. We were not required to have a street number because it was the only building on the street! That changed when the Ford Credit building was built, and we received the address we have today: One American Road.

That address will follow us to the Hub. With more than 2 million square feet of space, our designers will continue to develop products that will keep the American Road open for decades to come.

Ted Ryan is heritage brand manager and archivist at Ford.