Dearborn

01 / Why it matters

Why Dearborn matters

Dearborn is Detroit's western neighbor, and if you care at all about car history, you can't skip it. Henry Ford was born here in 1863, and he built his Fair Lane estate and the River Rouge plant, the biggest factory in his empire, along the Rouge River. Ford Motor Company's world headquarters is still in Dearborn.

The other Dearborn is a city built by people from the Middle East. Lebanese Christians came for auto jobs in the early 20th century, and families from Palestine, Syria, Iraq and Yemen followed. In 2023 Dearborn became the first Arab-majority city in the U.S.; it has the largest mosque in North America, and since 2005 the world's first museum of Arab American history.

Its past isn't spotless: Orville Hubbard, mayor from 1942 to 1978, was a nationally known segregationist who openly boasted that Black residents couldn't move in. Since 2022 the city has been led by Abdullah Hammoud, its first Arab American and Muslim mayor. One day won't be enough: The Henry Ford in the morning, the F-150 plant in the afternoon, a Middle Eastern feast at night.