The Lodge’s “Little Brother”

Most text content below is from the MotorCities signs at the Carriage House site for everyone to enjoy... other edits are from the Friends of Highland Recreation Area...

It was a garage and a playhouse. The carriage house was planned to be the chauffeur’s home and to shelter Ford family vehicles. But the chauffeur moved into the Lodge, and the carriage house became a playhouse for the Ford children Henry II, Benson, Josephine, and William Clay. Self-sufficiency was important at the estate, as it was in Ford’s automobile factories. The building's exterior siding logs came from the northern Michigan timber holdings used for early Ford vehicle bodies. Model T parts were used in pulling logs up the hill and a backup power generation system near the Carriage House.

This is an audio/video short informing you of the history of special sites in the Haven Hill section of Highland State Recreation Area in Michigan. Haven Hill was once the country estate of Edsel and Eleanor Ford and their family in Highland/White Lake, Michigan.

The carriage house was often called the “Little Brother of the Lodge”, sharing the same cedar log construction. The chimney at the Carriage House, like all fireplaces and chimneys at the Lodge, was made of Vermont stone.  Although the building appears to be off log construction it is not. Exterior facade half-cut log construction details to the visitor at the corner of the carriage house reveal copper zigzag wires that were wrapped around the ends of the log facde to minimize peeling of the wood and bark.

The electrical power system at Haven Hill was placed underground to maintain the natural appearance throughout the estate.