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| Town Clock in Chelsea, Michigan |
Last month, my husband and I traveled to Michigan for a three day trip. We were lucky and enjoyed beautiful weather. I brought my fiddle, as I always do when I travel, and met some interesting and fun people. I hope to return in the near future as it was such a positive experience.
Day One
Our first visit was to the Detroit Historical Museum.It was Sunday so the traffic was not congested downtown. The museum was quite interesting, featuring a replica historic town, and exhibits of Detroit's music history.( I listened to the radio station CKLW as a kid and I am still a big MOTOWN music fan). If there is one aspect of the state that stands out, it is how innovation flourished in Michigan in the early 20th century. Early inventors put their ideas to commercial use, and the automobile industry changed Michigan - and the world almost overnight. The museum is a good place to start if you want to learn more about Michigan's history as world leader in early mechanized industry. And entrance to the museum is FREE! (donations are accepted).
After lunch , we drove to Chelsea, a pretty town east of Detroit. Just behind the prominent town clock is a brew pub, the Chelsea Alehouse. From 2-4 every Sunday the Alehouse hosts a celtic music session. I brought out my fiddle and joined the welcoming group. This was a perfect travel day in my perspective as a fiddler; combining heritage/sight-seeing in the morning and playing tunes and meeting new friends at a traditional music session.
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| Sunday afternoon session at the Chelsea Alehouse |
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| Our waitress was a pretty Irish lass from Sligo
Our next stop was the Irish bar Conor O'Neill's in Dearborn Michigan. The bar is an authentic Irish pub, the inside is constructed with elements from a dismantled pub in Ireland, sent to America and reassembled to create a true Irish pub atmosphere. If that wasn't authentic enough, our waitress was a pretty red-headed Irish girl, originally from County Sligo. After a lovely dinner there, I joined the weekly Sunday evening session. Lovely people- lovely tunes.
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Day Two
The Henry Ford museum is an engaging, fascinating place, full of the history of innovation and the pride of Michiganders, to be a state that contributed so much to the early automobile and technological industry. Cars, planes, trains, anything regarding transportation- they are all here.
But there are many other exhibits as well. One , that I found personally interesting, is the fiddle exhibit. Yes Henry Ford was a fiddler! He met his wife Clara at a traditional country dance. As well as an innovator and successful businessman, he was a musician! Clara and Henry enjoyed a long happy marriage, a relationship which started at a community dance.
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The museum is huge; we spent most of the day there. I want to return to Michigan again and we intend to go to the other attractions the Henry Ford organization offers, Greenfield Village and the Ford Rouge Factory tour. One day is just not enough time to see everything. So we will be back!
Day Three
For our last full day in Michigan we decided to visit two huge magnificent private homes . The Edsel and Eleanor Ford House in Grosse Pointe and Meadow Brook Hall in Rochester Hills. Edsel (Henry and Clara Ford's only child) and his wife Eleanor chose to live and raise their family in Grosse Pointe, a serene waterfront community west of Detroit. Edsel would commute to work at the Ford factory, with his boat! The mansion was built not to impress others, but to be a functional family home where the children of Edsel and Eleanor could grow up secure in idyllic surrounding. But of course it is very impressive. Inside the mansion, built in a Tudor style favored by the Fords after they visits to England, are elements of Tudor manors which were reclaimed and incorporated in the home. Taxes in England made it difficult to maintain huge estates, and sadly many were demolished because it became impossible to financially keep them. Luckily many Americans recognized the importance preserve the fine details of British manors that were slated for demolition. Hand carved panelling and a fireplace were salvaged from Wollaston Hall in England and now are preserved at the home.
At the information centre you can borrow an IPOD, and the history of this place is easily accesible...Something Henry Ford would really have liked.
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| The gate house of Edsel and Eleanor Ford's house; the adjacent garage has a huge car size turntable that allows easy access to the vehicles inside. |
Meadow Brook Hall
After touring the Ford House , we drove to Rochester Hills. Meadow Brook Hall is a National Historic Landmark. It was built with Dodge money. Matilda Dodge, wife of auto pioneer John Dodge, inherited a fortune when she became a widow. With her second husband she built the Tudor Revival home. We arrived too late to take a tour of the home, but a friendly volunteer showed us the huge garage with vintage Dodge automobiles and we we welcome to tour the impressive grounds and gardens.
We made our way to Bay City next. Once a rough and tumble port on Lake Huron, the economy of the town was dependent on the lumber trade. Our destination was the Stein Haus, a pub situated in the area of town once called Hell's Half Mile. The town is pretty and picturesque, and the waterfront well maintained. A far cry from how the town looked when the woodsmen would disembark the ships carrying lumber and spend their money in taverns and brothels. Every Tuesday the Stein Haus hosts a wonderful group of musicians. They were warm and inviting and welcomed me into their open session. This was my favorite session of my trip to Michigan and I intend on coming back. We played traditional fiddle tunes and the group sang ballads some which where original, performed by local singer-songwriters. It was a lovely end to our three day fiddle and fun vacation.
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| Stein Haus Tuesday night session |
