The Henry Ford Estate — Fair Lane in Dearborn, Michigan, has announced a $10 million grant from the Ford Foundation in support of the campaign to restore, reinterpret, and reopen the former home of Clara and Henry Ford.

The Ford Motor Company founder and his wife built the 31,000-square-foot estate, which they called Fair Lane, on thirteen hundred acres a couple of miles from where they both were born. The estate along the Rouge River included a hydroelectric powerhouse and dam, a greenhouse, a working farm built to scale for their grandchildren, an indoor pool, a skating house, staff cottages, bowling alley, a pony barn, a private garage, and laboratory. After Clara's death in 1950, the company acquired the estate and used it as an archival center and office space. In 1956, the company donated the home and two hundred and ten acres of land to the University of Michigan for the development of its Dearborn campus, where it was used for meetings, events, a restaurant, and tours until the university closed it in 2010. In 2013, the estate became an independent nonprofit when the university transferred ownership of the home and seventeen acres of land to the newly established Henry Ford Estate, Inc.

With the grant from the foundation, the estate has raised more than $24 million of its $25 million goal. Ten percent of the funds raised will be put into an endowment that supports the operations of the estate, while the remaining funds — including support from the Ford Motor Company Fund, the Ford Family, Ford and Lincoln dealers, and individual contributors — will be used to address structural and life-safety issues, restoration, furnishings, and interpretation of all the rooms on the main floor of the home. The campaign also will support the development of educational exhibits related to the history of the estate.

"This generous commitment from the Ford Foundation is meaningful for so many reasons," said Henry Ford Estate chair Edsel B. Ford II. "Not only will this help in restoring, reinterpreting, and reopening Fair Lane to the public; this gesture reinforces the Ford Foundation's exceptional commitment to Detroit and the surrounding region. We are honored that so many members of the extended Ford 'family' have graciously stepped up to support our shared legacy. We look forward to inviting the public back to Fair Lane to experience this inspiring place that my great grandparents called home."