Ford House hosts reception to celebrate the completed restoration project of the historic lagoon and pool
"No diving anyone, no access to the board," Rebecca Torsell, director of historic preservation at the Ford House in Grosse Pointe, joked to a small crowd of Ford family members, contractors and other guests as she showed off a replica wooden diving board from Belgium.
Early Monday morning, guests put on their best flowered dresses paired with straw hats or their best summer suit paired with loafers and headed over to the Ford House for a reception celebrating the restoration project for the historic lagoon and pool.
In 2019, the Ford House Board of Trustees decided it was time to restore the historic lagoon and pool that had been around for over 90 years.
The pool was a summertime staple for Edsel and Eleanor Ford and their four children. Lynn Ford Alandt, chair of the Ford House Board of Trustees and granddaughter to Edsel and Eleanor, recalled her experiences growing up.
"When we were kids, we used to come swimming," Alandt said. " We would have lunch in the pool house and then we would swim in the pool and just have a great time."
Alandt didn't always swim when she came to Grandma and Grandpa's 87-acre estate in Grosse Pointe Shores. When she was able to come, though, she said it was always welcoming and just fun.
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She praised the team of contractors and architects who made the restoration a reality after several years.
"They did a fabulous job," she said.
The pool was created by architects Jens Jensen and Albert Kahn in 1926. It was created to feel like the woods of northern Michigan with native shrubs and trees. The restoration by the Ford House staff and architects and engineers from Albert Kahn Associates in Detroit took three years.
Stephen White, vice president and landscape architect with Kahn, said it was an interesting project.
"It wasn't a blank palette to come in and just design an environment or an ecosystem that we wanted to see," White said. "This was truly restoring from historical photographs, the actual work that Jens Jensen designed back in the '30s, in the original project. We looked at hundreds and hundreds of photographs, and we would dissect the photographs, annotate them and we will rebuild the plant communities the way they were back in the original day."
The pool holds up to 185,000 gallons and the deep end is 9 feet. The newer, modern pool features UV sterilization that neutralizes harmful bacteria and pathogens.
Before the restoration, the pool was in dire need of an upgrade because piping under it was leaking, according to Karl Koto of the Ford House.
"Every day, we were losing thousands of gallons of water out of the pool," Koto said.
The lagoon was damaged by erosion and required repairs.
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The pool is swimmable, but swimming is not allowed, as it's a part of the museum.
This was one of the most extensive repairs to the grounds to date. It features a replica diving board imported from a vendor in Belgium, one of the only companies in the world that still creates wooden boards.
Edsel Ford's first wooden diving board was designed by Jens Jensen in 1926 and Ford bought it in 1928 for $150.
This article originally appeared on Detroit Free Press: Edsel and Eleanor Ford old pool gets a restoration
