The full history of the hotel is

Henry I - built the hotel when he saw a need for it due to his Ford Field (Ford owned an airline back then)...airport closed within a few years of the hotel opening

Henry loved Americana - build replica's of famous American homes (there were suppose to be many more than there current are but war made it difficult to continue construction)...let's see if I can remember them all, Gov Wolcott, Barbara Fritchee, Edgar Allen Poe, Patrick Henry (ugh there's 1 more...total of 5...the rooms out there are terrific)

Henry noticed his employees at the Rouge needed a place to live so he built the dorm which is closed due to asbestos (closest to the pool)

In the 50's and 60's the hotel had the 2 motor lodges added (burbank and mcguffy - while Henry I was long gone these were two people he admired)

Henry I also founded the Edison Inst (now known as The Henry Ford) and transfered the hotel to this non-profit as a way of generating income (not sure exactly when that occurred), the Inst put the property up for sale in the 80's and FoMoCo couldn't let it go outside the family (the company has a full service land develop co in FoMoLandDev) so FoMoLand purchased the hotel and started a reno, during the reno they hired MI to be the management company, MI suggested additional changes be made which FoMo Land agreed with extending the amount of time the hotel was closed

it certainly is an amazing hotel which recently went through another reno which moved the Ten Eyck Tavern, eliminated the Early American Room and the Golden Eagle Lounge (unfortunately the publics wants/needs have changed greatly over the years)

If you ever return - make sure you get a tour, the Alexandria Ballrooms is filled with history (as is most of the property), Pilots Row (first floor rooms where the airline pilots use to stay) etc