Richmond Hill Plantation, East of Richmond Hill on Ford Neck Road, Richmond Hill

Source document Quoted word for word from HABS GA-2348. Not written, edited or summarised by this site.

East of Richmond Hill on Ford Neck Road, Richmond Hill vicinity, Bryan County, Georgia. USGS Richmond Hill Quadrangle UTM Zone 17 Point 1 E N Point 15 E N Point 2 E Point 16 E Point 3 E N Point 17 E Point 4 E N Point 18 E Point 5 E N Point 19 E N Point 6 E N Point 20 E Point 7 E N Point 21 E Point 8 E N Point 22 E Point 9 E N Point 23 E Point 10 E Point 24 E N Point 11 E475168 Point 25 E474512 Point 12 E N Point 26 E N Point 13 E N Point 27 E N Point 14 E N Point 28 E N

Source document Quoted word for word from HABS GA-2348. Not written, edited or summarised by this site.

Henry Ford's personal estate, Listed on National Register of Historic Places Contributing buildings in the district include the Ford Mansion, Laboratory/Powerhouse and Chimney, Oyster House, Stable/Garage, Caretaker's House, Sterling Creek Lettuce Shed, Dynamite Shed, Cherry Hill Lettuce Shed, and the Chute Building. A Civil War earthwork, the Richmond Battery, and a historic landscape, the Sterling Marsh, are also located in the historic district. RICHMOND HILL PLANTATION, Hemy Ford Plantation HABS No. GA-2348 (Page 2) General Context Henry Ford, the great American industrialist, first visited the Savannah area in 191 7. In that year, Ford explored the Georgia coast and Ogeechee River by yacht with his close friend and famous naturalist, John Burroughs.

By that time, Henry Ford was a household name for the great automobile dynasty he founded in Detroit, Michigan. He was also the world's first billionaire. On occasion, Henry Ford, John Burroughs, Harvey Firestone, and Thomas Edison subsequently took camping trips up the Ogeechee River and elsewhere. Hemy and Clara Ford had a winter home in Fort Myers, Florida.

During the however, they were tiring of it because of a lack of privacy (Bryan Henry and Clara Ford explored the Savannah and Ogeechee Rivers during a trip in The Fords discovered the ruins of the Richmond Plantation main house, burned by Sherman's Federal troops in The site was surrounded by giant live oaks on a picturesque bluff overlooking the river, Ford decided she wanted to build a southern-style home in that exact spot (Bryan By that time, there was very little wealth in the area. It was only a poor agricultural community surrounding a railroad depot known as Ways Station. Soon after their visit, Ford's agents purchased the tract containing Clara's building site and additional surrounding property.

The property comprising the Ford's personal estate contained the acreage historically associated with the Richmond, Cherry Hill, and Silk Hope Plantations. Ford obtained options to buy many other larger tracts on the Ogeechee Neck. His agents tried to disguise Ford's identity, but word spread quickly that he was purchasing massive acreage in the Ways area (Bryan Newspaper articles soon appeared which demanded to know his intentions. Henry Ford was a complex man, and he had several reasons (besides privacy) for establishing himself on the Ogeechee Neck in lower Bryan County. During the early Hemy Ford was distressed that the British, who controlled the world's rubber production, arbitrarily doubled its price.

During a conversation with his close friend Harvey Firestone, the two industrialists decided to begin a research project to find a domestic source for rubber to break the British monopoly (Mccaskey They sought help from another mutual friend, Thomas Edison. Together, the three men organized the Edison Botanic Research Corporation in and set up an experimental laboratory and agricultural fields in Fort Myers, Florida. Ford established a similar complex near his home in Dearborn, Michigan and established a rubber tree farm in the Rio Tapajos region in Brazil (Bryan It was soon apparent to locals that Henry Ford must be establishing yet another "experimental farm" at Ways Station, Georgia.

Ford's agents eventually purchased over acres in and around Bryan County (Mccaskey Hemy Ford was not a single-minded industrialist, however. He was a philanthropist and genuinely concerned with people's welfare. When Ford asked his agents what most local residents RICHMOND HILL PLANTATION, Hemy Ford Plantation HABS No.GA-2348 (Page 3) did for a living, they said "they make moonshine liquor" (Bryan Ford stated that he intended to give them better employment opportunities. He established a sawmill at Ways Station and lumbering soon became the area's primary industry.

The chief product of the mill was prefabricated tenant houses which were provided to employees at reduced costs (Bryan An associated carpenter shop also produced crates, wooden forms for concrete fence posts, caskets, furniture, kindergarten toys, and church pews (Bryan The carpenters even constructed Little Lulu, a 28' cabin cruiser powered by two Ford V-8 automobile engines. Although Henry Ford had only completed the sixth grade, he strongly valued education.

On his arrival in Bryan County, Ford immediately provided funds to local schools and announced his intention to establish a boys trade school at Ways Station (Bryan He also ordered construction of a consolidated school for whites which provided a standard high school education, and an equivalent George Washington Carver School for blacks. Malaria was rampant in the region and the population suffered from abnormally high cases of typhoid fever, syphilis, smallpox, diphtheria, and hookworm (Bryan Ford supported the Ways Station Health Clinic; he assumed control of it in and tripled its capacity. Citizens received treatment and medication at no expense. Doctors told Ford that sanitation was one of the root causes for the area's poor health.

He purchased cement-enclosed "sanitary" privies specified by the county and provided them to every family free of charge (Bryan For Henry Ford, these philanthropic enterprises provided a challenging hobby and intense personal satisfaction. While at Ways Station, the Fords resided at the Cherry Hill House, the residence originally constructed by Thomas Arnold in the This house was adjacent to Clara's "dream house" site on the Richmond bluff. Planning began on Henry and Clara's "Southern style" residence in and it was finally completed in 193 7. The Cherry Hill residence became a guest house. Ford converted an old rice mill into a personal research laboratory and a powerhouse. They named their new winter estate Richmond Hill Plantation.

Of course, "Richmond" was the historic plantation name of their building site. When asked about the "Hill" part of his estate's name Ford commented "Anything not a swamp around here is named a hill" (Sullivan Although Henry Ford is often quoted as saying "history is bunk," it is clear he was interested in the area's history. He purchased and paid for restoration of nearby Fort McAllister, he likewise had a number of old plantation and former slave houses restored, and he commissioned a written history of Bryan County plantations on the Ogeechee Neck.

In Ford hired one of Edison's chief chemists at Fort Myers, Ukkelberg, to supervise the farm crops and to direct a newly constructed research laboratory at Richmond Hill (Bryan Rubber experiments were no longer a priority since synthetic rubber seemed the most viable alternative to breaking the British monopoly. Instead, Ford instructed Ukkelberg "to find new crops or better varieties of old crops grown in this section, and to develop new uses for these crops and for available waste materials" (Bryan ... RICHMOND HILL PLANTATION, Henry Ford Plantation HABS No. GA-2348 (Page 4) Some of the most notable projects included extraction of starch from sweet potatoes and water chestnuts, soybean yield experimentation, and the use of slag as a soil conditioner.

Many oil producing plants such as tung trees, perilla, chia, castor beans, and abutilon were planted and tested. Alcohol was distilled from rice and sweet potatoes and mixed with gasoline for use as fuel. The old rice dikes were restored and the fields were used for experimental acreages of English peas, carrots, mustard, turnips, beets, broccoli, rutabagas, onions, cabbage, Irish potatoes, okra, cucumbers, cotton and other crops (Bryan The most favorable results on the old rice fields were made with Iceberg lettuce. It was found to have "a particularly better flavor" than lettuce grown on uplands, and it made a better profit than other crops. Specialized lettuce packing sheds were constructed adjacent to the marshes and the crop was grown commercially.

In local citizens voted to change the name of Ways Station to Richmond Hill to honor Ford. This was not a good year for the community however. The Richmond Hill laboratory (not to be confused with Ford's personal laboratory/powerhouse) burned later that year and was not rebuilt. Most of the research projects were abandoned. By then, World War II had diverted Henry Ford's attention. The U.S. Army obtained several hundred acres for the establishment of an anti-aircraft gun training facility, Camp Stewart (Bryan and the Coast Guard even requisitioned Little Lulu for patrol duty. Henry probably did not notice these changes, however. He spent much of his time in Detroit overseeing the production of aircraft, tanks, trucks, jeeps, landing craft, and all the items necessary for a full-scale war.

Henry Ford suffered a stroke in early and he gave control of the Ford Motor Company to his grandson, Henry Ford II (McCaskey Ford assumed direction of the Richmond Hill operations. By all accounts, the spirit at Richmond Hill changed markedly after Henry's stroke. In late Clara ordered a confidential assessment of the operations and ordered nonprofitable projects closed down. Many philanthropic donations ceased, and even the expense for upkeeping Fort McAllister and several small cemeteries on the estate were questioned (Bryan The trade school and girls school were closed in and costs in general were drastically reduced. Henry Ford died in April and he willed the Richmond Hill property (with the exception of Clara's house and grounds) to the Ford Foundation.

He had invested for the Richmond Hill property which was appraised at According to tax returns, he had lost on operations and contributed for education (Bryan Except for the sawmill, all of the Richmond Hill operations were gradually closed down and sold. Clara died in September and the Richmond furnishings were removed to Dearborn and auctioned (Sullivan The most profitable enterprise, the sawmill, burned on May 11, The Ford Foundation announced a complete discontinuance of operations on September 6, School properties were transferred to the Bryan County Board of Education. The rest of the Richmond Hill property was sold, most of it to the Southern Kraft Timberland Corporation and the International Paper Company (Mitchell McCaskey RICHMOND HILL PLANTATION, Henry Ford Plantation HABS No.

GA-2348 (Page 5) After Clara Ford's death, the Ford mansion remained unused for almost a decade. In the house and acres was sold to a New Hampshire industrialist (Mccaskey The property changed hands several times over the next two decades with various schemes to utilize the impressive estate. In the mansion was used as a restaurant, but failed after only one year of operation (McCaskey The condition of the Ford House deteriorated to a point around when became dilapidated and it was used only to store hay. The house was rehabilitated in when a Saudi Arabian entrepreneur, Ghaith R. Pharaon, purchased the estate. Like others associated with this tract, Pharaon is an interesting individual.

He was educated in France and Lebanon in his younger years, while his university education was in the United States with degrees from the Colorado School of Mines, Stanford University, and an MBA from Harvard (Mccaskey Pharaon owned homes in Paris, London, Jeddah, Hong Kong, Borneo, Cannes, and a castle in the Dordogne at Montfort, France. He purchased the Richmond Hill estate and converted the Ford House into his residence.

He also remodeled Ford's old powerhouse/laboratory into offices for InterRedec, the corporation which controlled his business interests in the United States (McCaskey Pharaon caused many changes to the Ford estate in the He rehabilitated the Ford House and Laboratory, constructed a new garage building near the mansion, moved and rebuilt the Cherry Hill House, and expanded Ford's yacht basin into a marina which could accommodate larger vessels. He made significant changes to the estate's landscape, including the addition of numerous plantings. Pharaon ordered roads constructed and paved; he also modified the original Ford house entrance into a formal drive, complete with iron fences salvaged from New Orleans.

Other modifications included placement of numerous statues and concrete balustrade fences, and construction of a swimming pool (Mccaskey ). The most significant alteration to the estate grounds was the construction of a world class golf course designed by renown golf course architects, Pete and Dye (Mccaskey Although Pharaon did not play golf, he told the Dyes to "Give me a truly inspirational golfing experience that may encourage me to take up golf some day" (McCaskey More than half of the 509 acre Sterling Bluff Golf Course was constructed on the old Cherry Hill rice fields, which were filled in for the purpose. The Sterling Bluff Golf Course was named one of the "Top 100 Golf Courses in by Golf Digest Magazine (McCaskey RICHMOND HILL PLANTATION, Henry Ford Plantation HABS No.

GA-2348 (Page 6) Bibliography Bryan, Ford R. Beyond the Model T: The Other Ventures of Henry Ford. Wayne State University Press, Detroit, Michigan. Long, Franklin Leslie and Lucy Bunce Long The Henry Ford Era at Richmond Hill, Georgia. Darien Printing & Graphics. Darien, Georgia. Mccaskey, Glen The View From Sterling Bluff: From General Oglethorpe to Henry Ford to Today. Longstreet Press, Marietta, Georgia. Mitchell, Ruthanne Livaditis Settlement Geography of the Richmond Hill Plantation. Masters Thesis, Georgia State University. Atlanta, Georgia. I I , ,/ ! \ \ / \ '' x;/ I I -.l ? ~)~ // \ ft> I~ I \ \ _t. J / I I 'I-., I \ ;/ /\. I I cef ' \ . I --- I 0 -VI /~I/ (Q) \. ~\I\ ~a n~1 1 1 i> fe ~~~ r I11J. -- .- 1 J' ; ~ \~m {~ ,1' /. / - /i et. . - -F \ ).) .

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Park Service

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