Friends, Families & Forays: Scenes from the Life and Times of Henry Ford

52. Dearborn Country Club

52 Dearborn Country Club In 1923, the Ford Engineering Laboratory, being built on Oakwood Boulevard and housing Henry Ford’s private office, established Dearborn rather than Highland Park as headquarters of Ford Motor Company. Most of Henry Ford’s top executives would now have their offices either at the Engineering Laboratory or at the nearby Rouge plant. Dearborn had been Ford’s hometown since birth, and most of his close friends were there. Should the hometown of Henry Ford be secondclass ? Should Dearborn bow down to the “Pointes” or to the “Hills” in rank? Ford thought not! He wanted his friends and employees to have the best, and he could afford it. He was making and selling 9,000 automobiles a day, more than 2 million a year. These were boom times. Some say he did it for his old friends who lived in Dearborn. Some say it was for his company executives. It was certainly not for himself — he never played a game of golf. He is said to have once hit a golf ball and in the process hit a girl in the head with the ball. He had no further interest in the game. The Fords made their wishes known to Ernest Liebold, general secretary to Henry Ford. According to Liebold, he was told by Ford, “Now, you have somebody lay out that golf club. I don’t want any professionals or any of these high-class fellows. We want to lay out a good practical golf club that anybody and everybody can use.” There was to be no smoking or drinking of liquor, and food menus were to be simple and reasonable. Apparently, Ford did not intend to have golf professionals at the club, but other minds eventually prevailed, and David Robertson was later engaged as golf instructor. Edsel Ford, then president of Ford Motor Company and living in Detroit, pitched in to help. He helped Liebold in arranging for Donald Ross, designer of Detroit Golf Club, to lay out the course on 163 acres of Ford-owned land on the east side of Military Road south of Ford Road. The land had been purchased by Ford in 1909 at a cost of $71,434.03. 396 Previously published in the Dearborn Historian, Vol. 30, No. 1, 1990. The course would consist of eighteen holes covering a distance of 6,659 yards (3.78 miles). It was laid out so that the sun would never be directly in a player’s eyes, always at an angle of at least 60 degrees. For a clubhouse, Ford commissioned Albert Kahn, who had designed several factories and office buildings for Ford. Clara Ford was interested in the design of the clubhouse and suggested that it be built of logs, but after some attempt, her suggestion was found impractical. Instead, it was to be of Old English timbered construction. Clara did collect the antique English furnishings, however. A bill dated January 25, 1925, for furniture and tapestries purchased from Harry J. Dean Company of Detroit amounted to $9,084.The clubhouse is said to have cost the Fords about $250,000. Ford Motor Company employees William Smith and B. R. Brown supervised construction of the clubhouse by the Otto Misch Company. Ray Dahlinger, head of Ford Farms, was in charge of landscaping the course according to Ross’s plans. This job of constructing sand traps, bunkers, greens, and tees was quite in contrast to Dahlinger’s other responsibility at that time of providing a perfectly level field for the Ford Airport. Dahlinger had about fifty workers building the golf course. The course was ready in the spring of 1925, but the clubhouse with its locker rooms, dining room, and grand ballroom was not completed until that fall. Corporation papers had been filed by Clifford B. Longley in March 1925 over the signatures of Ernest Kanzler, George Brubaker, R. L. Welborn, Herman Kalmbach, R. D. McClure, and W. H. Smith. On May 2, 1925, the club petitioned the Detroit District Golf Association and the United States Golf Association for membership. 397 Dearborn Country Club under construction in November 1924. The architect was Albert Kahn, and the builder was the Otto Misch Company. (P.0.19116) On April 3, 1925, the first applications for membership were received. First in line was Clyde M. Ford, mayor of Dearborn, followed by twenty more Dearborn men. A week later, applications from Detroiters were...