Dylan Carr

Dylan Carr

HSS 404003

Kyle Riismandel

Henry Ford’s Suburb

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The early 1900’s and up to the late 1920’s America was in a

process of economic boom especially with the industry business

and agriculture, but the cities still had their problems with

prohibition and the KKK. This era was overall good for the people

in America and there where people still looking to the future,

Henry Ford was one of those people that were looking forward, and

he was looking away from the cities to the suburbs. Threw his

business methods and ideals he had an impact on the way American

suburbs turned out. Evidence of this is shown in Ford Motor’s

advertisements at the time and his personal endeavor of

Fordlandia.

The way Henry Ford ran his business was different than

anyone at the time and his sole goal was to make cars for the

average American. To get his dream started he had to bet

everything on his cars to prove that he can make great cars and

to make money, Henry had to put everything on his ability to

build cars twice. The first he also risked his life and raced in

his own 26 horsepower car at Grosse Pointe, Michigan. He won the

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race and with the proceeds from the race Henry started the Henry

Ford Company also known as the Detroit Automobile Company. In

March, 1902 Henry left the company because the company did not

share the same dream of building cars for the people, also from

that point on he was determined never to put himself under orders

from anyone else. After Henry left the company became the

Cadillac Company and later bought out by General Motors. At this

point he was working out of a single brick room shop and he

needed to learn how businesses worked, he has no idea he was a

mechanical worker and had no business except his disaster with

the Detroit Automobile Company. The idea that since someone

invested money into his work gave them the right to make

decisions was preposterous to him.

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Henry Ford and Spider Huff driving the ‘Sweepstakes’ Racer, against Alexander Winton’scar, Grosse Pointe, Michigan, 1901

Yet again he needed money to start his dream, so he had to

risk everything on his ability to build cars again. “The idea in

those days was that a first-class car ought to be a racer. I

never really thought much of racing, but following the bicycle

idea, the manufacturers had the notion that winning a race on a

track told the public something about the merits of an automobile

—although I can hardly imagine any test that would tell less.”

With that logic in 1903 with Tom Cooper, they created two cars

built for pure speed, the “999” and the “Arrow”. The two cars had

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80H.P. which was never done before and it was said that the roar

of those cylinders alone was enough to half kill a man according

to Henry. They raced again at Grosse Pointe, Michigan and they

won, it was said that there car was a good half mile ahead of the

next man by the end of the race. With winning the race they got

all the publicity they needed and shortly after the Ford Motor

Company was formed, at the start Henry was only V.P. with 25% of

the shares of the company. He got controlling stake in the

company as soon as he could a few years later in 1906 and never

took orders again from anyone else.

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Henry Ford, standing, and Barney Oldfield in 1902, with the "999" racing automobile

Once Henry had his company up and running he had one of the

most successful businesses in America. The business methods he

used changed the world and increased production dramatically. The

first method that helped increase production was that Ford

utilized vertical integration; they made all of their components

so that they didn’t have to rely on other companies for parts.

The second method, the more important and revolutionary one, was

the assembly line, with this the production of cars was rather

simple and it was easier for the works as well because they began

taking the work to the men instead of the men to the work. Each

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man only had one job on the assembly line and it was just one

simple job. Also Henry had two general principles for his

workers; first one was that a man shall never have to take more

than one step, if possibly it can be avoided, and the second one

is that no man need ever stoop over. Henry had three principles

when he created the assembly line.

The principles of assembly are these:

(1) Place the tools and the men in the sequence of the operation so that each component part shall travel the least possible distance while in the process of finishing.

(2) Use work slides or some other form of carrier so that when a workman completes his operation, he drops the part always in the same place—which place must always be the most convenient place to his hand—and if possible have gravity carry the part to the next workman for his operation.

(3) Use sliding assembling lines by which the parts to be assembled are delivered at convenient distances.

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Motor assembly line at the Highland Park Plant, 1914

With the assembly line Ford could mass produce his cars and

with the mass production that caused the prices of the cars to

drop. They dropped enough that the average man could afford the

cars and that was one of the bases for Ford marketing. One of the

other main marketing strategies they used was revolving there ads

around families and they are driving in rural areas or doing some

activity with the car outside in the country. Suburbs did not

exist much at this time, but most of the Ford ads where depicted

in a suburban environment. It seems Henry was trying to create an

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initial move to the country or rural areas with the ads and his

low price cars.

1910 Ford Model T brochure

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1924 Ford Model T brochure

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1924 Ford Model T Advertisement

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The last thing that ties all of this together is Fordlandia,

it was located in the middle of the Amazon Rainforest and it was

a piece of the rain forest that was suburbanized. Its main goal

was to grow rubber trees to produce natural rubber for the tires

and to avoid dependency on rubber from the British. Looking back

at it today Fordlandia looks very similar to the suburbs that

were built during the 1950s and 60s. The houses are built the

same way; like they were placed on a grid and they both have

local shops for common goods. Fordlandia is practically a 1950s

suburb that was built in Brazil during the 1930s.

Fordlandia houses on Riverside Avenue

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Fordlandia aerial view

View of employee housing, Fordlandia

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Henry Ford had an impact on today’s suburbs threw his

business methods and marketing strategies. He even created a

minor suburb in Brazil, Fordlandia, even though it was a disaster

for what it was intended it still functioned as a suburb. The

suburbs of the 1950s are identical in structure to what Henry

created and he was making ads with ford cars in a rural or suburb

environment. He was trying to get people out of the cities by

making cars for average American.

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