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Ford Valve Plant
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Ford Valve Plant. Note water wheel at extreme right.
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| Location: | 235 E. Main St., Northville, Michigan |
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| Area: | 4 acres (1.6 ha) |
| Built: | 1936 |
| Architect: | Albert Kahn |
| Architectural style: | Art Deco |
| Governing body: | Private |
| NRHP Reference#: | 95000866[1] |
| Added to NRHP: | August 01, 1995 |
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.[2] It was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1995.[1]
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Northville's Valve Plant was the first of Henry Ford's "Village Industries" factories.[3] The Village industries were designed to bring the economic advantages of industrial jobs to rural communities through the establishment of decentralized, non-disruptive manufacturing plants.[2][3] In particular, Ford intended the Village Industries to stabilize the income of farmers who would otherwise have little winter income,[3][4] and he gave his workers leaves of absence to work their farms.[5]
Over the span of the 1920s and 1930s, Ford established over thirty more Village Industries factories, making everything from copper welding rods to lamp assemblies to wheels.[3] The plants tended to be small, employing around 100 workers. As in Northville, all of the factories were built on a riverbank (many at the former site of gristmills), and utilized hydroelectric power.[3][4]
Henry Ford purchased the property this building sits on in 1919.[2] The lot contained an old gristmill which was reconfigured into a valve manufacturing facility by moving machinery in from the Fordson and Highland Park plants.[6] Between 1919 and 1936, the plant manufactured over 180 million valves,[6] at a cost of less than half what it would be in the larger Highland Park plant.[5]
In 1936, Ford replaced the mill with an Albert Kahn-designed factory building.[2] The building reflects the then-current industrial architecture, as well as hints of Art Deco in the brickwork and entryway styling[7] but still incorporated a water wheel.[2]
The Village Industries program was discontinued in 1947, but the factory continued to produce valves.[2] The building was enlarged in 1956, and in 1969 over 150,000 valves were produced every day.[6] The plant continued operations until 1978, the longest lived of any former Village Industries factory,[2] and was later sold.[6] The building has been renovated into office space for use by design firms.[8]
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