In Dearborn , Michigan , across Ford World Headquarters , where is at nowadays the Michigan Technical Education Center , at that topographic point stood the visitor middle of Ford Motor Company. It was a circular edifice 10 stories high resembling a stack of internally-meshed gears , each decreasing inwards size towards the overstep where a geodesic dome rested. Two wings flanked out from the sides anchoring the steel-framed dome inwards place.
Ford Rotunda was in i trial America’s 5th virtually pop tourist attraction ahead of such places similar the Yellowstone Park , Mount Vernon , the Washington Monument together with the Statue of Liberty. The Rotunda was originally conceived inwards Chicago when Henry Ford decided that his society should move featured inwards a show-stopping edifice for the 1933 World Fair , “Century of Progress Exposition”. So he turned to his favorite architect , Albert Kahn , who was known for his functional withal elegant architectural designs inwards Detroit together with on the University of Michigan campus inwards Ann Arbor. Albert Kahn also designed many of the company’s institute together with buildings including the Highland Park Plant , the Rouge Plant , both of which are at nowadays National Historic Landmarks.
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The Ford Pavilion together with the Ford Exposition Building , every bit it was called together with thus , was 900 feet long amongst a 12-story drinking glass rotunda at its center. Nine G floodlights , hidden roughly the circular outside , bathed the edifice inwards a rainbow of colors. From the middle of the edifice , beams of low-cal were projected into the heaven that , on a clear nighttime , could move seen for xx miles.
During the 2 years the fair ran , the Ford Pavilion was visited yesteryear over 12 i G m visitors. After the fair ended , the Rotunda was disassembled together with moved to Dearborn , Michigan , together with erected straight across from Ford Motor Company's Central Office Building to serve every bit a visitor middle together with starting signal for the company’s pop Rouge Plant tours. The edifice was renamed Ford Rotunda.
The Rotunda forthwith became a huge attraction drawing non exclusively mutual people only many painting stars , celebrities , work organisation leaders , together with heads of nation who came to come across the company’s latest cars together with the elaborate shows Ford organized. The biggest depict was the annual Christmas displays during the holidays. The interior of the Rotunda was transformed into a spectacular Christmas fair amongst a 35-foot tall glistening Christmas tree , a doll display amongst to a greater extent than than 2 ,000 dolls , together with elaborate animated scenes featuring life-sized , moving storybook figures similar Hansel together with Gretel , Robin Hood , Wee Willie Winkie , together with Humpty Dumpty. New attractions were added each year. The 1958 decorations boasted of a xv ,000-piece miniature animated circus , for instance.
It was spell preparing Ford Rotunda for the 1962 Christmas Display , a workman accidently overturned a firepot on the building’s highly inflammable tar roof setting the entire edifice on fire. In less than an hr , Ford Rotunda had burned to the ground.
The terminate caused an estimated harm of $15 i G m , equivalent to nearly $115.5 i G m inwards 2013. The society decided non to pass whatever to a greater extent than coin , together with razed the building’s remains instead. The Blue Planet where the Rotunda was stayed vacant for many years , until 2000 when the Michigan Technical Education Center was opened.
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Ford edifice at the Century of Progress Exposition , Chicago , Illinois , 1934. Photo credit: www.thehenryford.org
New Ford Cars for 1940 Displayed inwards Ford Rotunda , Dearborn , Michigan , 1939. Photo credit: www.thehenryford.org
The “Out of the Earth” exhibit featured diverse natural materials that went into making Ford V-8’s , shown through a cutaway at top. Photo credit: www.thehenryford.org
Courtyard within Ford Rotunda Building , Dearborn , Michigan , 1937. Photo credit: www.thehenryford.org
A 1937 postcard showing Ford Rotunda. Photo credit: www.thehenryford.org
The Christmas tree together with doll display at the 1955 Christmas Fantasy. The large banners of the Rouge Plant on the wall behind the doll displays were component division of the Rotunda’s regular exhibits. Photo credit: www.thehenryford.org
Visitors thought dolls from the Ford Motor Company Girls’ Club “Doll Dressing Contest ,” 1958. Photo credit: www.thehenryford.org
Santa’s Workshop , 1960. Photo credit: www.thehenryford.org
The violet cathedral entrance to the inner courtroom , where the Nativity scene was displayed. The Nativity scene tin move seen through the entrance. Photo credit: www.thehenryford.org
Fire at the Ford Rotunda Building , Dearborn , Michigan , 1962. Photo credit: Michigan inwards Pictures
Fire at the Ford Rotunda Building , Dearborn , Michigan , 1962. Photo credit: www.thehenryford.org
Photo credit: Michigan inwards Pictures
Photo credit: Michigan inwards Pictures
Sources: Wikipedia / History.com / www.thehenryford.org