Famous people's places / Highland Park
Highland Park Ford Plant
Closed – archive entry · 1974
Albert Kahn's revolutionary factory where Henry Ford's moving assembly line began mass-producing the Model T in 1913, now a National Historic Landmark with an uncertain future.
01 / The story of this place
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Henry Ford opened this Highland Park factory in 1910, commissioning architect Albert Kahn to design a daylight factory of reinforced concrete and glass built for efficient, continuous production. On the plant's floor in 1913, Ford's engineers introduced the moving assembly line, cutting the time to build a Model T from about twelve hours to roughly ninety minutes and transforming industrial manufacturing worldwide. Ford ran the plant as his primary production site until the much larger Rouge complex in Dearborn took over most manufacturing in the 1920s; Highland Park continued in a reduced role, mainly making tractors and trucks, until Ford ended all production there in 1974 and sold the remaining buildings in 1981. The surviving structures were named a National Historic Landmark in 1978 and listed on the National Register of Historic Places, but large sections of the sprawling complex were scrapped for a tenant storage yard in the 2010s, and a nonprofit's plan to convert the site into an automotive heritage center collapsed, leaving much of the plant's future uncertain even as core buildings still stand on Woodward Avenue.
- Opened by Henry Ford in 1910, designed by Albert Kahn
- The moving assembly line began here in 1913
- Ford ended production in 1974 and sold the complex in 1981
- Declared a National Historic Landmark in 1978
- Much of the site has since been scrapped, with preservation efforts unresolved
Famous Detroiters
Famous people tied to this place 5
Lexicon entries for the people who lived, worked, performed or liked to spend time here.
- Henry Ford 1863–1947 · automaker, industrialist, founder of Ford Motor Company
Worked here
Where the moving assembly line began in 1913; all production ended in 1974. Surviving buildings form a National Historic Landmark.
- Albert Kahn 1869–1942 · architect
Worked here
The Model T factory where Ford introduced the moving assembly line in 1913; a National Historic Landmark, no longer a car plant.
- József Galamb 1881–1955 · mechanical engineer, chief designer of the Ford Model T
Worked here
Ford's engineering moved here with Model T production in 1910; surviving buildings are a National Historic Landmark.
- William S. Knudsen 1879–1948 · president of General Motors, wartime production chief
Worked here
He served as production manager here during the rise of mass production.
- Charles E. Sorensen 1881–1968 · Ford production chief, pattern maker and manufacturing pioneer
Worked here
He was second in command of production when the moving assembly line was introduced here in 1913.
Sources & fact check · Checked: 2026-09-25
An independently written bilingual guide. This collection is not an attendance-based ranking.
03 / Events
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