The Gate Lodge & Garage

Every visitor to Ford House arrives the same way the Ford family did: through the arched entrance of the Gate Lodge.

Albert Kahn designed the Gate Lodge as part of the original estate, completing it in the same Tudor Revival style as the Main Residence. It is more than an entrance. It is a small community in its own right, built to house some of the people who kept the estate running.

The Gate Lodge includes the entrance arch, an eight-car garage, and three staff residences. By the 1940s, Chief of Security Thomas Loughlin and his wife lived in the South Cottage, where they lived until his death in 1972. Chauffeur Arthur Fauser and his family occupied the North Cottage, which adjoined the garage. Fauser served the family for decades, driving Eleanor Ford in her custom 1952 Lincoln Town Car Limousine. Mr. Fauser died in 1954, but Eleanor continued using the car well into the 1970s. 

Today, the garage is home to Driven by Design+, an exhibition of five rare vehicles that tells the story of Edsel Ford’s influence on American automotive design. The world’s only 1939 Lincoln Continental prototype is here, alongside the 1932 Ford Model 18 Speedster and three other vehicles from the Fords’ collection.

The Garage is included with both Grounds Admission and House + Grounds Admission.