From Detroit, I did a quick trip to Dearborn since it’s actually less than 30 minutes away. Immediately I could tell that Dearborn was much nicer than Detroit, with plenty of upscale houses. I was supposed to stay in a Bed & Breakfast in the nice neighborhood seen below, but they never answered their phone or door when I arrived!
Dearborn is famous in the United States for having the highest number of Arabs. As a matter of fact, over 40% of the people living in Dearborn are Arabic! Most of them immigrated from the Middle East during the mid 20th century to work in the automobile industry. The population back then was mostly of Christian Arabs. Believe it or not Saddam Hussien made a near half a million dollar donation to an Arabic church in the late 1970s. He developed good ties with the city of Detroit which led to them giving him the keys of the city! There are plenty of Arabic churches to be seen in Dearborn, but it seems that today the majority now practice Islam. Dearborn is home to the largest mosque in North America called the Islamic Center of America.
If you love Middle Eastern food like myself, then you’ll find plenty of great restaurants to try in Dearborn. The majority of them seemed to be Lebanese. Some of the restaurants were similar to fast food places while others were very fancy like the once I dined at above.
Now for Dearborn’s main attraction, Henry Ford’s hometown! Above is Henry Ford’s house that he grew up in as a boy, and later purchased as an adult. Because he moved out as a child most of his personal belongings from his early years are no longer in the house, but what you see above is what he used to decorate as an adult. When Henry Ford became wealthy of the automobile, he not only bought his childhood home, but also bought the entire property around it and named with the Greenfield Village. Today it is the largest indoor and outdoor museum on the continent!
The Henry Ford museum also has an enormous indoor area that has everything from cars, aircraft and even trains! Above is the Ford Model T, the world’s first car that was mass produced and led to the company’s success. On the upper right is the entrance to the museum where a quote and signature is displayed on the small podium from one of Ford’s best friends, Thomas Edison.
The indoor museum has countless historic artifacts. For example, above you can see one of several cars that were used to escort various American presidents. The most important car present is John F Kennedy’s limousine. Throughout the past century, Ford has created so many vehicles that it’s interesting to see comparisons to some of their older and newer models.
While you can’t even touch the outside of the presidential vehicles, you’re more than welcome to hop inside the actual bus that Rosa Park rode on! The seat that she originally refused to give up during her protest in Birmingham Alabama isn’t marked, but if you ask someone at the museum they will be more than happy to point it out to you.
Henry Ford was always passionate about powerful machines. He collected lots of equipment such as large manufacturing tools and this giant locomotive seen above. There were several other trains within his museum. I mistakenly thought that this one on the upper right was used to escort presidents prior to automobiles, but its story is that on its last journey it escorted a US president and was named the Presidential Train.
Back outside to the Greenfield village, this place is so big you can actually take a 30 minute train tour or even ride in a Model-T! If that’s not enough I even saw a few horse drawn carriages passing by. Below is a photo of one of several buildings that you can explore for a history lesson or lecture on how things were done in the early 20th century. There are plenty of places to eat, and of course several souvenir shops.
What I liked most about Greenfield village is there were individuals in most of the buildings who would explain various techniques used a hundred years ago. For example, on the upper left is a woman cooking and making an old fashioned breakfast. On the right is a man explaining to me how they would work with tin to make bracelets, lamps, and other small items.
