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[Oznell]

The gorgeous color-spangled Midwestern autumn trees frame the house..

Isn't it beautiful?  Car magnate Henry Ford's son Edsel Ford and his wife Eleanor built this English Cotswold-type house in suburban Detroit in the mid-Twenties.  It's now a National Historic Landmark, open to the public!

A lot of these moguls and their scions gravitated to solid, often stone, "baronial" type houses, that they commissioned renowned architects of the day to design.  I have several favorites, but esp. love this one, and also "Stan Hywet",  the legendary one that the Goodyear fortune guy built in Akron, Ohio,    My third favorite, "Parkwood",  was built by Colonel Sam McLaughlin in Oshawa, Ontario--  he was the founder of General Motors in Canada, and wanted a fitting setting in which to raise his debutante daughters...

But back to the Edsel Ford house:

Even the gate house is stunning!

The stone terrace overlooks Lake St. Clair:

Here in the dining room, the leaded glass windows are as charming from the inside as they are on the facade of the house.   Love the ancient paneling and the fireplace...

Lovely period drawing room--

This library looks like it could be lifted from one of the great English country houses...

This hall is called "the Cloister".  And it looks like one, with the majestic barrel ceiling....

All these antiques, and then they turn around and create a den-like space that they call the "Modern" room.  It is sleek and very "Thirties" and Art Deco in feeling, with its clean lines and exotic woods, and must have been fun for their children to unwind in.

When you have 50-plus rooms, you can have a little diversity in styles!

Looking toward Eleanor Ford's rose garden.

In addition to touring the house, visitors wander the woodsy estate...

Or they stroll by the shore...

"Bird Island" attracts migrating birds of all kinds that the Fords loved to watch--

"The Meadow"

What a fabulous place to visit-- entering another world.

[Kachina624]

Beautiful setting and grounds.  It would be lovely to visit in the Spring.  I'm not too enthused about huge dark, old, period mansions.  Kind of creepy and not my style.

[Franklinbell]

Beautiful!

[Nonametoday]

Can you even imagine living in such opulence? 

@Oznell

Is this house in possession of the Ford family or does it belong to the government (state), or just who cares for it.  It is splendouriferous.  I know that's not a word but it is what I think of this.  Wow, wow, wow!  I love the Cotswold houses.  Oh, they are such throwbacks to such a beautiful, romantic British time.

[Queen of shop]

@Oznell  Magnificent. Thanks for this post. I loved looking at it. I would have loved to see all the migrating birds and hung out in The Meadow if I lived there.

[QVCisFun]

Grand and beautiful.

[jubilant]

Yes, it is beautiful...inside and out. I love the grounds and the lake as I am more of a lake person then an ocean person. There's also something about a gate house that has always attracted me.

[Imaoldhippie]

Absolutely stunning!

[Patriot3]

This is gorgeous........I can only imagine living in such luxury!

[Oznell]

Good question, @Nonametoday .   Apparently before Eleanor Ford died, she expressed the wish that the house be open to the public.  The Ford family seems to be at least partly (or wholly, not sure) involved in running it...

Wiki had some fascinating tidbits about it.  I love the details about the "Modern Room" being designed by a leading industrial designer using new methods at the time:

Other interesting design elements include kitchen counters made of sterling silver, a "secret" photographic darkroom behind a panel of Edsel Ford's office, and Art Deco style rooms designed by Walter Dorwin Teague, a leading industrial designer of the 1930s. Teague's first floor "Modern Room" features 'the new' indirect lighting method, taupe colored leather wall panels, and a curved niche with eighteen vertical mirrored sections.[10]