Former Dearborn Heights horse track? [Dahlinger Estate]

**MikeM** · March-13-10, 10:01 PM

Anyone know the name and history of the track near the center of this picture? It's between Ford Rd and Ann Arbor Trail, west of Evergreen.

http://www.clas.wayne.edu/photos/par.../ha-17-117.pdf

http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&s...355,-83.239417

**jgavrile** · March-13-10, 11:09 PM

This track was part of the Dahlinger farm. Ray Dahlinger was Henry Ford's farm superintendent,and sometime chauffeur. His wife was Evageline Cote, and she was Henry Ford's personal secretary and alleged mistress. Henry Ford gave them the 150 acre land that the race track was on.
In later years, a subdivision was built on the land and the stables for the race track became a club house for the subdivision. It still stands

**MikeM** · March-13-10, 11:24 PM

Thank you! I can see the club house on Old Colony Road in current aerial views. Is that the Dahlinger estate on the west side of the track, at the end of Williamsburg Road?

**Lowell** · March-14-10, 12:21 AM

Intriguing find - street view show Williamsburg ending abruptly, as if it was intended to be continued.

**MikeM** · March-14-10, 01:41 AM

I looked up Dahlinger in a 1949 phone book. His address was 20400 Ford Rd, which is right where the farm was, and in the old photos there appears to be a drive off of Ford Road to this house.

Hard to tell, but the property looks dilapidated in recent birds-eye views:

Attachment 5481

**Whitehouse** · March-14-10, 07:39 AM

Originally Posted by jgavrile

This track was part of the Dahlinger farm. Ray Dahlinger was Henry Ford's farm superintendent,and sometime chauffeur. His wife was Evageline Cote, and she was Henry Ford's personal secretary and alleged mistress. Henry Ford gave them the 150 acre land that the race track was on.
In later years, a subdivision was built on the land and the stables for the race track became a club house for the subdivision. It still stands

Point of orientation is the semicircle on the bottom of the racetrack. That same semicircle can still be seen in aireal shots.

And the stables are looking pretty dandy with old glory flying in top.

Originally Posted by MikeM

I looked up Dahlinger in a 1949 phone book. His address was 20400 Ford Rd, which is right where the farm was, and in the old photos there appears to be a drive off of Ford Road to this house.

Hard to tell, but the property looks dilapidated in recent birds-eye views:

Attachment 5481

The street presently name Riveroaks drive used to run upto Fordroad. So maybe back in the days it didn't have a name and everything build along that road had an address on Fordroad.
I don't think this house is a lost cause. I think someone is doing some serious remodelling or reconstruction. It's a millionaire's dream.

**MikeM** · March-14-10, 04:47 PM

A brief description of the property found in "The People's Tycoon: Henry Ford and the American Centruy" by Steven Watts:

Ford's generosity culminated in a gift of 150 acres situated just downriver from his own home on the River Rouge. This became the site for the Dahlinger estate in the late 1920s, a palatial property whose worth obviously surpassed the financial resources of its occupants. The Tudor-style main house had nine fireplaces, eight bathrooms, servants' quarters, and a refrigerated fur-storage vault. It was surrounded by a gatehouse, several barns, a blacksmith shop, a lake and skating house, quarter-mile and half-mile racetracks, a gardeners' house, a greenhouse, a boathouse, and a large garage. The main house had a secret staircase. After entering a small, out-of-the-way room on the main floor, one could climb these stairs and emerge into Eve's bedroom suite upstairs without being observed.

**jgavrile** · March-14-10, 05:09 PM

Another bit of info is that Evageline's family also opperated a Ford delaership in Highland Park and then Detroit , on Woodward, called J.B. Cote Ford. Cote. was her maiden name.

**Whitehouse** · March-14-10, 05:21 PM

Read somewhere it was once called Henry Ford's Mistress' mansion in Dearborn Heights.

**karl jr.** · March-14-10, 05:27 PM

I seen that track years ago while looking for my house in that picture. I live in a house directly across evergreen from that farm.
I ask a older guy who grew up in the neighborhood that lived 3 doors down from me if he knew what it was, he said, "that was where Henry Fords mistress lived and the track was were she raised her trotters. My dad said Ford would take his boat up the river to visit her. She was a mean bitch she had a hand kick my ass for climbing this huge tree that was on the corner of evergreen and ann arbor tr. right were the gas station is". If you look in that pic you can see the tree he was talking about.

**goggomobil** · March-14-10, 05:28 PM

Great stuff. I never would have known that the Dahlinger house still existed.

**gnome** · March-14-10, 05:53 PM

The image of Hank going on a midnight river ride with humping on his mind is very disturbing.

**Patrick** · March-14-10, 06:02 PM

There was also a Dahlinger farm out in Romeo....I will need to dig into my archives for more info.

**Patrick** · March-14-10, 06:04 PM

It is always somewhat strabge to see these massive mansions and estates plopped in the middle of a boring suburb. Kinda like the Ty Cobb home in Southfield...as a matter of fact, Southfield seems to have a number of houses like that that were built years before the surrounding neighborhoods.

**karl jr.** · March-14-10, 06:15 PM

Maybe Hank used that staircase!

**MikeM** · March-14-10, 07:45 PM

Originally Posted by gnome

The image of Hank going on a midnight river ride with humping on his mind is very disturbing.

Yes it is. Then returning in the morning to teach square dancing.

**MikeM** · March-14-10, 07:46 PM

Originally Posted by Patrick

There was also a Dahlinger farm out in Romeo....I will need to dig into my archives for more info.

I think that same book mentions that Dahlinger also had a farm near Romeo.

**1KielsonDrive** · March-14-10, 10:52 PM

What a great bunch of Historians we have here at DY. This is what makes this website so valuable and fun. Thanks to all for your contributions.

**1KielsonDrive** · March-14-10, 10:53 PM

And, of course, MikeM leads the way. Thanks.

**reddog289** · March-15-10, 01:26 AM

The longer I am around this site, I am amazed on how much land Mr Ford had. Wish I had a map of it when he held all of it.

**MikeM** · March-15-10, 11:00 AM

Originally Posted by reddog289

The longer I am around this site, I am amazed on how much land Mr Ford had. Wish I had a map of it when he held all of it.

By 1947 he owned 26,000 acres of farmland for which he paid $14M. It was claimed that he could walk from Tecumseh to Dearborn without stepping off his property.

**MikeM** · March-15-10, 11:07 AM

Local Ford holdings from a 1926 real estate map:

**fareastsider** · March-15-10, 12:07 PM

Why is it on so many older regional maps that they highlight land owned by Ford? I have a few older maps that show Ford land holdings as well. I find that on many maps from the 1st half of the 20th century you can see Ford lands.

**MikeM** · March-15-10, 12:31 PM

Are they maps from real estate companies? I think some were owned by Ford or hired to purchase and develop land for him.

**Leo B** · March-15-10, 11:03 PM

I have visited the ruins of the Dahlinger boat house in the Rouge flood plain south of the mansion. It is kind of a cinder block bunker with a steel "roller" overhead door. At Hank's Fairlane mansion, perhaps .5 to .75m downriver, is a corresponding boathouse where he kept his Elco electric boat. Eletric boats are great for whisper quiet midnight boat rides......