Detroit By Night
The Rise of Old Detroit Money
Henry Ford and the Automotive Revolution
From 1900 to 1915 Detroit was on the forefront of the development of automobiles and quickly
dominated the new industry. Henry Ford first became familiar with the manufacture of engines from
his job at Detroit Dry Dock, the city’s largest boat builder. By seeking investment from Detroit’s
wealthy families, many of whom gained their fortunes from declining industries like lumbering and
were looking for new investment opportunities, Ford built a state of the art factory and literally drove
the industry’s boom. By 1910 dozens of Detroit automobile factories had sprung up, making Cadillacs,
Packards, Studebakers, Huppmobiles, Hudsons, Dodges, Lincolns, and more. A feverishly inventive
automotive culture developed here not unlike Silicon Valley in the 1980s. Automobile talk was the
talk of the town, and cars drove along the highways out from Detroit to the rest of the country.
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