Ford Family Makes Plans to Take Back Fair Lane Estate

by Jonathon Ramsey (RSS feed)
Apr 24th 2010 at 7:02PM

Now that the Ford family doesn't need to spend sleepness nights fretting over the very existence of its namesake firm, it can dedicate its time to other worrisome matters – like the condition of Fair Lane estate. The 56-room, 31,000-square-foot home finished in 1913 and part of the National Register, has been looked after by the University of Michigan at Dearborn since the 1950s.

A public institution, as should be well known by now, has to be an option of last resort when it comes to taking care of a massive old mansion. UM Dearborn says that Fair Lane needs $12 million in repairs, and that amount forced a choice between doing the best it could for students or doing the best it could for the house.

Hence, oversight of the estate will move from the university to the Ford family in July of next year. At that point the estate will close for a year for repairs. When it reopens it will not only be new again, it will tell a "more comprehensive" familial tale tied into the Edsel and Eleanor Ford House in Grosse Pointe, Michigan.

Tags: fair lane estate, ford, michigan, university of michigan, university of michigan dearborn