The Ford Plantation
48 Ford Way, Richmond Hill, Bryan County, Georgia
Built in 1936, for Henry Ford (1863-1947) and his wife Clara Jane Bryant (1866-1950). The Fords kept a summer home at Fort Myers, Florida, but by the early 1920s felt it was becoming overcrowded and a neighbor suggested that they took a look at Ways Station, Georgia. Ford ended up buying 85,000-acres on Bryan Neck and using the "Savannah Gray" bricks salvaged from the historic Hermitage Plantation he built this 7,000 square foot mansion overlooking the Ogeechee River - loosely inspired by the Hermitage. They named their seasonal home the Richmond Hill Plantation and the town of Ways Station was later renamed Richmond Hill in their honor. Referred to today as "The Main House," it is one of 400-houses on the 1,800-acre Ford Plantation....
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The Ford's built their new winter home on the old Richmond Plantation which prior to 1820 had been known as the Dublin Plantation and its avenue of live oaks was greatly admired by Frederick Law Olmsted in 1856. The original plantation house had been burned in 1864 by General Sherman's troops during the Civil War. The Ford's surrounded their new home with 55-acres of landscaped gardens and Henry converted the old rice mill into what he called his "tinkering lab" filled with old car parts and watches etc. Henry died in 1947 and after Clara died in 1951 Richmond was sold to the International Paper Company.
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Contributed by Mark Meredith on 18/02/2020 and last updated on 26/02/2020.
Image (cropped) Courtesy of the Library of Congress, Contributed by Carol Highsmith; Richmond Hill, Historic-Structures.
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