The Midnight Ride of Henry Ford 125 Years Ago

[Lowell]

I'm always amazed and charmed by how often great things begin so tinily and unheralded. 125 years ago in the early morning of June 4 Henry Ford busted out the frame and bricks of his Bagley shop and drove out onto the streets of Detroit and into history.

He was one of many such creators before and since, but he's the one that would master the genius of manufacturing to make the automobile affordable to the masses and forever change the story of human transportation.

The impact on history, culture and the face of the planet would be incalculably immense, building and destroying Detroit in the process.
https://freep-mi.newsmemory.com?selD...o=A001&artid=3

[Danny]

Ford drove his first car "quadracycle" down Bagley St. in Downtown Detroit from his garage. In fact after he finish his car, he torn down front door just to get car out.

[Richard]

And the world was changed forever.

Home appliances were made 30” because that was the standard household door size,well 40” back in those days,he could have built a 40” prototype and saved the hassle of tearing out the door frame.

He sold it for $200 which is like $6800 in today’s money to build the second one.

But even the model A at $500 is $10,000 in today’s money.

At that time the union wage [[Germans in Detroit) was .39 per hour,50 hour work week,Thats $19.50 per week or $1,014 per year,so it would take the average worker 10 years of saving to buy a $500 car,that’s not spending another dollar on anything like food etc.

If he had not implemented the $5 per day pay,how cars would he actually been able to sell?

Considering 80% of the population would never been able to afford a $500 car it is interesting to see how everything evolved outside of the actual car in order to be able to even mass produce them in the first place.

A lot of things had to be put in place to make that feasible.

[CassTechGrad]

Every time I'm driving on Woodward through Highland Park and pass Manchester, I look down the street and think of this picture. He improved the lived of everyone in every way possible. Rest in peace Mr. Ford, God bless you.

[Henry Whalley]

Mr. Ford, God bless you.

In whichever heaven or hell is reserved for fascists... I prefer to rest in the opposite place. IMHO. YMMV.

[CassTechGrad]

"Jesus said unto them, He that is without sin among you, let him first cast a stone at Mr. Ford. ... And then Jesus said unto Henry Ford, Neither do I condemn thee: go, and sin no more.” AMEN.

[Henry Whalley]

"Jesus said unto them, He that is without sin among you, let him first cast a stone at Mr. Ford. ... And then Jesus said unto Henry Ford, Neither do I condemn thee: go, and sin no more.” AMEN.

Moses said you need at least two witnesses to justify stoning an adulteress. No witnesses came forward, so Jesus said "Drop the charges!"

As in that great Gospel song:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xAMi0yaPNRk

But really, who needs Jesus to tell them not to stone a person to death? My dad taught me that.

In the case of the sinner Ford, there are more than enough witnesses who knew or know that his sympathies were with the devil.

[Honky Tonk]

Moses said you need at least two witnesses to justify stoning an adulteress. No witnesses came forward, so Jesus said "Drop the charges!"

As in that great Gospel song:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xAMi0yaPNRk

But really, who needs Jesus to tell them not to stone a person to death? My dad taught me that.

In the case of the sinner Ford, there are more than enough witnesses who knew or know that his sympathies were with the devil.

Actual stones went the way of the Model T. These days people use multi-media and electronic stones. I guess it depends which Testament one chooses to follow.

[Jerry Van]

OH MY GOSH! Henry Ford wasn't perfect???

All you know-it-all revisionist historians, quit acting holier than thou and get over it!

[jcole]

Henry Ford was far from perfect; he was an anti-semite and an inspiration to Hitler; how is this revisionist?

n 1931, two years before he became the German chancellor, Adolf Hitler gave an interview to a Detroit News reporter in his Munich office, which featured a large portrait of Ford over the desk of the future führer. The reporter asked about the photo.
“I regard Henry Ford as my inspiration,” Hitler told the News.

https://www.bridgemi.com/michigan-go...idnt-want-told

OH MY GOSH! Henry Ford wasn't perfect???

All you know-it-all revisionist historians, quit acting holier than thou and get over it!

[Henry Whalley]

Actual stones went the way of the Model T. These days people use multi-media and electronic stones. I guess it depends which Testament one chooses to follow.

Murder by stoning isn't like casting aspersions. Mass murder by Zyklon B isn't like a rock concert. But congratulations you have birthed the cluster f**ked metaphor, leaving mixed metaphor for lesser bards.

[Henry Whalley]

Henry Ford was far from perfect; he was an anti-semite and an inspiration to Hitler

The sainting of Ford reminds me of a tale in Boccaccio's Decameron wherein God allows miracles to be performed at the shrine of a wealthy scoundrel who is burning in hell:

"Ser Ciappelletto cheats a holy friar by a false confession, and dies; and,
having lived as a very bad man, is, on his death, reputed a saint, and
called San Ciappelletto"

"...So lived, so died Ser Cepperello da Prato, and came to be reputed a saint, as you have heard. Nor would I deny that it is possible that he is of the number of the blessed in the presence of God, seeing that, though his life was evil and depraved, yet he might in his last moments have made so complete an act of contrition that perchance God had mercy on him and received him into His kingdom. But, as this is hidden from us, I speak according to that which appears, and I say that he ought rather to be in the hands of the devil in hell than in Paradise. Which, if so it be, is a manifest token of the superabundance of the goodness of God to usward, inasmuch as he regards not our error but the sincerity of our faith, and hearkens unto us when, mistaking one who is at enmity with Him for a friend, we have recourse to him, as to one holy indeed, as our intercessor for His grace. Wherefore, that we may by His grace be preserved safe and sound throughout this time of adversity, commend we ourselves in our need to Him, whose name we began by invoking, with lauds and reverent devotion and good confidence that we shall be heard."

[Gistok]

Returning back from the Sermon on the Mount...

Does anyone have an old pre-1925 Sandborn map of downtown Detroit showing where 58 Bagley is located on that block? That was the old address of Ford's duplex at that location, which today is 220 Bagley Ave., site of the Michigan Building and former theatre.

I'm trying to figure out where exactly on that block the historic workshop was located, either in the building or former theatre portion.

Lowell, I don't believe that Tony Pieroni was aware of its location within the perimeter of his former building.

[Kathleen]

Every time I hear about Henry Ford, or Charles Brady King, driving their new contraptions around downtown Detroit in 1896, I wonder...

did Grandfather see them? and what did he think? My grandfather turned 5 in 1896. He lived on Hastings between what is today Monroe and Lafayette. His uncle was a fireman so Grandfather knew all the call boxes. When he was a bit older, he often accompanied the fire company on their calls. And he hung out at the Dodge Brothers garage at the end of the block. If only I had known all the Detroit history I've learned in the last 25 years, and could have talked with him about it when he was still with us...

[Honky Tonk]

Murder by stoning isn't like casting aspersions. Mass murder by Zyklon B isn't like a rock concert. But congratulations you have birthed the cluster f**ked metaphor, leaving mixed metaphor for lesser bards.

And so I rest my case.

[LongGone06]

Returning back from the Sermon on the Mount...

Does anyone have an old pre-1925 Sandborn map of downtown Detroit showing where 58 Bagley is located on that block? That was the old address of Ford's duplex at that location, which today is 220 Bagley Ave., site of the Michigan Building and former theatre.

I'm trying to figure out where exactly on that block the historic workshop was located, either in the building or former theatre portion.

Lowell, I don't believe that Tony Pieroni was aware of its location within the perimeter of his former building.

Isn't there a plaque on the Bagley side of the Michigan Building commemorating the location? I don't know if that's the actual site, or just close to it.

There's no question that Ford had a number of opinions that most find offensive today. I don't have to agree with, or even like him personally to acknowledge what he created and the impact it had on Detroit, the country, and the world.

Be careful who you put on a pedestal. History is a harsh critic, and those who seem beyond reproach today will undoubtedly be out of step with the values and mores of people 100 years from now.

[Gistok]

^ That sign is by the building entrance... so that is questionable... unless the building entrance happens to be where the duplex/workshop was... which is why I am asking the question.

The block is a trapezoid in shape... with the narrower Clifford side having a length of 160ft, and the other 3 sides having circa 250ft lengths.

The Michigan Office/Theatre Building was originally supposed to take up the whole block, with a triple arched theatre entrance along the west end of Bagley... but the 8 businesses along the more expensive Grand River front would not sell for what was considered a reasonable price to the developer, so they were left out of the project, and the theatre ended up with only a single arched entrance [explains why the marquee was out of alignment with the arched window]... and the auditorium ended up being narrower than it would have been, had the entire block been used in the project.

[jcole]

Returning back from the Sermon on the Mount...

Does anyone have an old pre-1925 Sandborn map of downtown Detroit showing where 58 Bagley is located on that block? That was the old address of Ford's duplex at that location, which today is 220 Bagley Ave., site of the Michigan Building and former theatre.

This is from the 1921 Sanborn; the addresses don't seem to match up assuming that the numbers represent both old and new. Maybe I'm not reading it correctly

Link to map:https://www.loc.gov/resource/g4114dm...,0.398,0.263,0

[Gistok]

Thanks Jcole... you're awesome!! The map is correct. 56-58 Bagley were the 2 duplex building that the Ford's owned. In back where it says 'steel truss roof' is the building that replaced the wooden shed that didn't survive until the Michigan Theatre was built in 1925-26.

Henry Ford took bricks from the dismantled 56-58 duplex, and rebuilt his workshop in Dearborn in brick, instead of its' original wood. So the location of the original Ford Workshop was originally located somewhere within the spacious grand lobby of the later Michigan Theatre... today the auto ramp for the parking structure within the Michigan Theatre shell.

[Henry Whalley]

There's no question that Ford had a number of opinions that most find offensive today.

I'd revise your statement to say "that many find offensive" since anti-Semitism remains very robust in the U.S. today. Ford's 'The International Jew' was and remains the bedtime storybook of little Nazis everywhere.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_International_Jew

His hatred wasn't a youthful indiscretion -- he was 53 years old when he was creating TIJ. If we ignore his sins, we must ignore all sins.

I couldn't ignore reading "Rest in peace Mr. Ford, God bless you" on an anniversary of D-Day. But that's just me. Be well

[Zozo]

Henry Ford was brave enough to call out the rootless transnational elites that year after year fund in the majority both the Democrat and Republican parties, and currently control the foreign policy of our country. These people are more loyal to a certain country in the middle east in which they are engaging in an open genocide with the generosity of our American tax dollars. These are people such as Harvard Professor Noel Ignatiev who wrote in the New York Times about "abolishing whiteness" and Dr. Ronald Moss, Chair of the American Psychoanalytic Association, who regularly gives lectures in public universities on what he refers to as the "malignant, parasitic-like condition of whiteness." Bravo to Mr. Ford for standing up to these people when he had the chance. It's somehow assumed that criticizing Jews is anti-semitic, and that the default position we must have is to be pro-semitic.

[Cincinnati_Kid]

I bet him and Ty Cobb were best friends back in the day.

[Henry Whalley]

It's somehow assumed that criticizing Jews is anti-semitic...

You blew many Nazi dog-whistles but forgot to mention Illuminati.

[bust]

I followed the link to the Wikipedia page about "The International Jew" and was disgusted, and shocked I had never known about this before.
It's common knowledge, or at least I hope so, Ford was anti-Semitic and racist [[my great-grandfather had to change his last name as a condition of working for him way back in the day), but I never knew how far it went.

It's important to learn about his immense contributions to industry, and society, and I was taught those well.
It's important to be taught about his other contributions to a much darker part of our history, it persists, but they were not discussed even a little bit where/when I went to school.

[Henry Whalley]

I followed the link to the Wikipedia page about "The International Jew" and was disgusted, and shocked I had never known about this before.

bust, I understand that Hitler kept copies of Ford’s anti-Semitic screed in his Munich office. The death camps were assembly lines.