Ford River Rouge Complex

About this property

The Ford River Rouge complex (officially Ford Rouge Center; commonly known as the Rouge complex, River Rouge, or simply The Rouge) is a Ford Motor Company automobile factory complex located in Dearborn, Michigan, United States, along the River Rouge, upstream from its confluence with the Detroit River at Zug Island. Completed in 1928, it was declared a National Historic Landmark in 1978. Henry Ford purchased the future site of the Rouge in 1915, with plans to build a bird sanctuary. Plans shifted to manufacturing following a federal request to the Ford Motor Company to produce warships. 'Building B', the first building on the property, was built to fulfill the request. The Rouge complex measures 1.5 miles (2.4 km) wide by 1 mile (1.6 km) long, including 93 buildings with nearly 16 million square feet (1.5 km2) of factory floor space. With its own docks in the dredged Rouge River, 100 miles (160 km) of interior railroad track, its own electricity plant, and integrated steel mill, the titanic Rouge was able to turn raw materials into running vehicles within this single complex, a prime example of vertical-integration production. Some of the Rouge's buildings were designed by architect Albert Kahn, such as its glass plant in 1925, which replaced Ford's glass production site in Highland Park, Pittsburgh. It measures 760 feet long and 240 feet wide, and its walls features large glass panels. Kahn also designed the tire plant. Completed January 30, 1938, it measures 802 feet in length and 240 feet in width and features a butterfly roof and, similarly to the glass plant, has large glass panels in its walls. In the second quarter of 1932, through Edsel Ford's support, Mexican muralist Diego Rivera was invited to study the facilities at the Rouge. The studies informed his set of murals known as the Detroit Industry Murals, which is exhibited in the Detroit Institute of Arts. Charlie Chaplin studied the Rouge for his 1936 film Modern Times. The Ford Company provides free tours of the facility via bus. They ran from 1924 to 1980, at their peak hosting approximately a million visitors per year. They resumed in 2004, in cooperation with The Henry Ford Museum, with multimedia presentations, as well as a viewing of the assembly floor. In 2017, the Rouge had 148,000 visitors. The Rouge formerly operated a power plant to power the facility. On February 1, 1999, the power plant exploded, killing six workers and critically injuring fourteen others. The explosion was believed to have been caused by Ford's disregard of regulation, and Ford was fined $1.5 million without criminal proceedings. Bronze plaques were installed for the six killed. In 2024, the power plant – now abandoned – was explored by The Proper People, an urban exploration YouTube duo.

Location

Categories

Property data from the National Register of Historic Places, National Park Service (public domain).

Description adapted from Wikipedia under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.

More in Wayne County

Historic places, battles, and census history across Wayne County.

More historic places in Michigan

Browse all historic places in Michigan.

Conflict records

Explore 19,000+ military engagements across American history.

Michigan history

Colonial settlement, territorial period, and statehood narrative.