Ford Valve Plant

Listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1995.

From the record

“The Ford Valve Plant is a factory building located at 235 East Main Street in Northville, Michigan. The plant was built as part of Henry Ford's vision of decentralizing manufacturing and integrating it into rural communities.”
Wikipedia article Ford Valve Plant, CC BY-SA 4.0.

One of 396 National Register listings published here for Wayne County · listed in 1995 · category: Building.

Sources: the Wikipedia article · the case file at the National Archives · the National Register database, National Park Service

The listing

What is counted as historic. The nomination lists 1 building as contributing to the listing.
Address. 235 E. Main St., Northville, 48167
When was it listed? August 1995
Category. building
City. Northville city
Architectural style. Art Deco architecture
Architect. Albert Kahn
National Register reference number. 95000866 - the number the National Park Service assigned this property when it was listed, and the key its nomination file is catalogued under at the National Archives.

Fires near this property

30 since 2010

Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The federal wildfire occurrence database lists 30 fires within 5 miles of Ford Valve Plant between 2010 and 2020, burning about 28 acres in total. 2 started naturally. None was recorded as arson. Distance is straight-line from the map coordinates, so a fire counted here may appear on a neighbouring settlement's page as well.

Reported cause	Fires
Missing data/not specified/undetermined	15
Equipment and vehicle use	9
Recreation and ceremony	3
Natural	2
Smoking	1

The most recent of them, most recent first, with the day each was reported and the service that recorded it.

Date	Cause	Size	Reported by	Name on the report
8 August 2019	Equipment and vehicle use	1.0 acres	Michigan Department of Natural Resources	NOVI FD 0004815 - 2019
30 August 2019	Natural	1.0 acres	Michigan Department of Natural Resources	PLYMOUTH COMMUNITY FD 0002021 - 2019
16 August 2019	Missing data/not specified/undetermined	1.0 acres	Michigan Department of Natural Resources	LIVONIA FIRE/RESCUE 0007106 - 2019
10 August 2019	Missing data/not specified/undetermined	1.0 acres	Michigan Department of Natural Resources	LIVONIA FIRE/RESCUE 0006927 - 2019
19 July 2019	Recreation and ceremony	1.0 acres	Michigan Department of Natural Resources	LIVONIA FIRE/RESCUE 0006169 - 2019
19 July 2018	Equipment and vehicle use	1.0 acres	Michigan Department of Natural Resources	NORTHVILLE FD 0021362 - 2018
13 July 2019	Equipment and vehicle use	1.0 acres	Michigan Department of Natural Resources	NOVI FD 0004244 - 2019
11 July 2018	Recreation and ceremony	1.0 acres	Michigan Department of Natural Resources	LIVONIA FIRE/RESCUE 5920 - 2018

Every fire recorded in Wayne County

Mines and quarries near this property

2 within 5 miles

Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The federal mineral resources record lists 2 workings within 5 miles of Ford Valve Plant: 1 producer, 1 past producer. 1 still produces. What was taken out: Sand and Gravel, Construction. Distance is straight-line from the map coordinates, so a quarry counted here may appear on a neighbouring settlement's page as well.

Where	Site	Commodity	Status	Recorded
	Hayes Washed S & G, Inc. Pit	Sand and Gravel, Construction	Past Producer
	Thomson Pit and Mill	Sand and Gravel, Construction	Producer

Every working recorded in Wayne County

Storms near this property

32 since 1997

Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The National Weather Service names Northville, the town this property stands in, in 32 storm reports between 1997 and 2025: 12 thunderstorm wind, 8 hail, 6 flood, 5 flash flood. The reports record 3 injuries. Each account below is quoted exactly as the forecast office filed it, from the NOAA Storm Events Database, and each date opens the federal record of that event.

When	Event	Place named	Harm	What the report says
May 2000	Lightning	Northville	3 hurt	no account filed
June 2021	Flash Flood	Northville	$139,000,000	Numerous roads and highways became impassable due to flooding. Four to eight inches of rainfall was reported in and around downtown Detroit, with Grosse Pointe Park reporting the highest total of 8.19 inches. Almost 15,000 homes suffered major flood damage, with close to 6000 homes experiencing minor flood damage across the northern part of county.
August 2023	Flood	Northville	$3,000,000	Flood waters from the flash flooding slowly receded.
August 1998	Flash Flood	Northville	$500,000	no account filed
September 2008	Flood	Northville	$350,000	no account filed
June 2010	Thunderstorm Wind	Northville	$30,000	Widespread tree damage was reported in the city of Northville. A large tree was also uprooted and fell onto a house.
August 2007	Thunderstorm Wind	Northville	$30,000	Broadcast media reported trees down on homes and vehicles in the City of Northville. Total property damages were estimated at roughly $30K.
June 2010	Hail	Northville	$5,000	The large hail caused broken windows.
May 1999	Thunderstorm Wind	Northville	$2,000	no account filed
May 1998	Thunderstorm Wind	Northville	$2,000	no account filed
April 2025	Flood	Northville	-	Numerous flooding reports across the Detroit Metro area. Severa flooding reports included parts of the freeway closed near Hamtramack, several roads across downtown Plymouth closed from flooding with vehicles stuck, multiple homes and cars flooded along Hanover St next to Ecorse River near the inersection of Barner St, several roads along 26 mile were completely flooded, homes and cars were flooded along Philomene Blvd, and Farmington also had soem roadways closed due to flooding.
July 2025	Flash Flood	Northville	-	Approximately 1 foot of standing water in Cherry Hill Village and in a neighborhood off Geddes Road. 6 Mile and Northville Rd impassable due to flood waters; cars getting stuck.
August 2023	Flash Flood	Northville	-	Heavy rain of 4-7 inches caused flooding across much of Western Wayne County. Areas in and around Detroit Metro Airport were particulary hard hit, with flooding limiting the acess to McNamara Terminal. Vehicles were stranded in several feet of water and parts of I-275 and I-94 were closed due to flooding. Numerous reports of roadway flooding in Canton Township, some of which required water rescues. Many businesses throughout Canton Township were damaged by flooding. Several inches of water covering residential street in Woodhaven. Flooding reported at Five Mile Rd and Northville Rd. Finally, after the 8/24 flooding, the Western Township Utilities Authority system could not keep up with the capacity and was forced to release partially treated effluent into the Lower Rouge River creating a public health issue.
June 2021	Flood	Northville	-	Flood waters from flash flooding slowly receeded. Moderate flooding was also observed along the Rouge River.
August 2020	Flash Flood	Northville	-	M-10 and I-94 were closed due to flooding in Detroit, as well as I-96 between Inkster and Beech Daly in Livonia.
August 2020	Flood	Northville	-	Flooding from the heavy morning rain slowly receded.
July 2014	Thunderstorm Wind	Northville	-	Spotter estimated a 65 mph thunderstorm wind gust.
July 2014	Thunderstorm Wind	Northville	-	A couple of trees reported down.
September 2013	Thunderstorm Wind	Northville	-	Numerous trees uprooted and large tree limbs reported down.
September 2013	Thunderstorm Wind	Northville	-	Powerlines reported down.
June 2010	Thunderstorm Wind	Northville	-	Large tree limbs were reported blown down.
June 2010	Thunderstorm Wind	Northville	-	A tree was reported blown down.
June 2008	Thunderstorm Wind	Northville	-	Several large tree limbs reported down.
July 2002	Thunderstorm Wind	Northville	-	The Northville Township fire department reported an 18 inch diameter tree blown down.
July 2023	Hail	Northville	-	no account filed
January 2020	Flood	Northville	-	no account filed
June 2010	Hail	Northville	-	no account filed
June 2010	Hail	Northville	-	no account filed
August 2008	Hail	Northville	-	no account filed
July 2003	Hail	Northville	-	no account filed
July 1997	Hail	Northville	-	no account filed
July 1997	Hail	Northville	-	no account filed

Every storm recorded in Wayne County

Map coverage status

No historic map-sheet match is published for this property yet. That does not mean no map exists. This record needs a coordinate-quality review before it can be joined to a sheet boundary. Browse the county's mapped places while that work is pending.

Listed places nearby

6 within 8 miles

Other National Register properties close enough to walk or drive between, ordered by distance from this one. Both positions come from the same geocoding pass that matched these properties to their map sheets.

Property	Distance	Listed
Northville Historic District	0.3 miles	1972
Greenmead Farms	1.4 miles	1972
Orson Everitt House	2.5 miles	1980
Starkweather School	3.8 miles	2016
Henry W. Baker House	4.2 miles	1982
Charles G. Curtiss Sr. House	4.2 miles	1993

Sources for this property

National Archives record	The nomination case file for reference 95000866 in Record Group 79.
Wikipedia article	Community-written account of this property, licensed CC BY-SA.
Wayne County	All 396 listed properties in this county.

Provenance

Listing record. National Park Service National Register of Historic Places, listed-properties dataset, current to 2026-05-22.
Map join. Address geocoded through the United States Census geocoder, then tested against the published boundary of every sheet in the USGS Historical Topographic Map Collection.
How this page is made. Listing fields come from federal records; map-sheet coverage is a labelled coordinate-to-boundary calculation, not a source-field claim.
Wildfire. Short, Karen C. 2022. Spatial wildfire occurrence data for the United States, 1992-2020 [FPA_FOD_20221014]. 6th Edition. Fort Collins, CO: Forest Service Research Data Archive. https://doi.org/10.2737/RDS-2013-0009.6 Collected with United States Government funding and usable without additional permissions or fees.
Mines and quarries. USGS Mineral Resources Data System (MRDS) https://mrdata.usgs.gov/mrds/ A work of the United States government, no copyright under 17 U.S.C. 105.
Storms. NOAA National Centers for Environmental Information, Storm Events Database https://www.ncei.noaa.gov/stormevents/ A work of the United States government, no copyright under 17 U.S.C. 105. Narratives are quoted verbatim from the National Weather Service report and are not edited or summarised.