The Dodge brothers played a large role in the development of
Detroit’s
automobile industry and, long after their death, their fortune contributed to
the cultural wealth of the metropolis. The Cranbrook Institution, Hart Plaza
on the riverfront, Detroit’s Music Hall and
the revitalized Opera
House benefited from the generosity of Dodge heirs.
The Dodge brothers grew up in Niles, Michigan where they learned to be expert
machinists. That small town had some manufacturing firms and was a major service
center for Michigan Central trains and equipment. Their father ran a machine
shop that produced engines for ships. Two of the Dodge brothers, John and Horace,
began working in Windsor, Ontario in 1892. Horace Dodge quickly designed and
patented an improved bicycle bearing using ball bearings. They entered the bicycle
business as a bicycle boom flourished in the United States and Canada. By the
late 1890s, they returned to Detroit, sold their interest in their bicycle business,
purchased used equipment in Canada, returned to Detroit and set up a machine
shop. William Boydell, a Detroit industrialist and paint manufacturer, erected
a large industrial building that still stands at 743 Beaubien. Boydell’s
impressive Beaux Arts style home is located at 4614 Cass, within walking distance
of the Robson-Dodge residence.
The Dodge brothers immediately began supplying component parts to Detroit’s
developing vehicle industry. Perhaps their break into major production came with
a 1901 contract to produce 2,000 transmissions for Ransom
Olds and his Oldsmobiles.
Olds was the first entrepreneur to produce cars in large numbers, using a plant
on East Jefferson that burned to the ground in 1903. Nevertheless, the Dodge
Brothers business grew rapidly. Most early auto manufacturers could not secure
enough capital to produce their own parts. They assembled cars primarily by purchasing
parts from suppliers such as the Dodge Brothers. In February, 1903, the Dodge
Brothers agreed to be the principal supplier of parts to Henry Ford and his firm.
Ford’s advertising seldom stressed that most of the parts he was using
came from shops run by the Dodge Brothers. By 1910, the Dodge Brothers were building
a large parts plant in Hamtramck.
Similar to many people who worked with Henry Ford, the Dodge Brothers had their
disagreements with him. Additionally, as Ford’s firm prospered with the
successful introduction of the Model T, Ford was able to increasingly manufacture
his own parts. Between 1912 and 1914, the Dodge Brothers terminated their relationship
with Ford, but their income was so great that they were able to rapidly enter
the auto business themselves producing Dodges. By 1915, they were turning out
cars from the large plant in Hamtramck that Albert Kahn had designed. Already
very wealthy, their income soared with the success of the Dodge vehicles. In
addition, they rapidly and successfully converted some of their factory to the
production
of munitions during World War I.
In January, 1920, both John and Horace Dodge contracted influenza that developed
into pneumonia. At that time, there were no sulfa drugs to treat the ailment,
so John Dodge died in January, 1920. His brother lingered, but succumbed to the
same illness in December, 1920. They left huge fortunes to their widows who spent
some of those funds developing Cranbrook and for other charitable purposes
in
Detroit.
Horace Dodge and his wife, Anna, moved into the home you see on West Forest in
1904. I do not know how long they remained in this residence. By 1911, Horace
Dodge had built a large red sandstone home in Grosse Pointe on the shore of Lake
St. Clair, a home he named the Rose Terrace.
This home is located with the Warren Prentis
Historic District whose boundaries
are Woodward on the east, West Warren on the north, Third Street on the west
and the alley south of Prentis on the south. As Detroit became an industrial
metropolis, prosperous professionals and administrators desired attractive residences,
but within commuting distance of their employment. This neighborhood was developed
to appeal to their tastes, much as upscale suburbs were planned and plotted after
World War II. You see very substantial architect-designed brick homes in a variety
of architectural styles. Most of them were built between 1880 and 1895. At the
start, their residents probably used carriages to get to work but by the 1890s,
electric street cars took people to their downtown shops and offices. I presume
that a Robson family built or occupied this home before the arrival of Horace
Dodge in 1904. Compared to east coast metropolises, Detroit has few apartment
buildings, but some of the city’s early multistory buildings for prosperous
families were constructed in this area.
Architect: Unknown to me
Date of construction: Unknown to me
Books about the Dodge Brothers, their families and their fortunes: Charles K.
Hyde, The Dodge Brothers: The Men, the Motor Cars, and the Legacy, (Detroit:
Wayne State University Press, 2005).
Jean Maddern Pitrone and Joan Potter Elwart, The Dodges: The Auto Family
Fortune
and Misfortune (South Bend, Ind.: Icarus, 1981)
City of Detroit Designated Historic District: Approved for listing January 17,
2001.
State of Michigan Historic Districts: P 25, 278
National Register of Historic Places: The Warren-Prentis District was approved
for listing December 1, 1997.
Use in 2007: Residence
Photograph: Ren Farley
Description: Prepared February, 2007