Auto industry / Business & brands
Horace Dodge
1868–1920 · machinist, automobile manufacturer, co-founder of Dodge Brothers
The engineering half of the Dodge Brothers, who supplied Ford's first engines, built Dodge Main in Hamtramck and helped create Orchestra Hall.
- Born
Niles, Michigan- Died
Palm Beach, Florida
aged 52- Birth name
- Horace Elgin Dodge
- Also known as
- Horace E. Dodge
- Detroit years
- 1886–1920
01 / The Detroit story
The Detroit story
Horace and his older brother John came to Detroit from Niles in 1886 and worked as machinists at the Murphy Boiler Works. After a spell in Windsor making bicycles, they opened their own machine shop in Detroit in 1900 and soon made engines and chassis for Olds and then for the young Ford Motor Company, taking Ford shares as part of the deal. Horace was the inventive engineer; John ran the business. In 1910 they opened a huge plant in Hamtramck, later known as Dodge Main, and in 1914 launched their own Dodge car, which quickly ranked among the country's best sellers. Horace built the red sandstone Rose Terrace mansion on Lake St. Clair, loved music and, with his wife Anna, backed the Detroit Symphony Orchestra and the building of Orchestra Hall in 1919. He died in 1920, months after John, and rests in the family's Egyptian-style mausoleum at Woodlawn Cemetery.
Highlights
- Opened the Dodge Brothers machine shop in Detroit in 1900
- Early supplier and shareholder of Ford Motor Company (1903)
- Dodge Main plant in Hamtramck opened in 1910
- First Dodge Brothers car produced in 1914
- Key backer of Orchestra Hall, opened 1919
02 / Their Detroit places
Their Detroit places 5
Where they lived, worked, performed and liked to hang out. Closed and demolished places stay here too, because they are part of the city's history.
Founded · 1910–1920
Dodge Main (Dodge Brothers Hamtramck Assembly)
Demolished · 1910–1980
The brothers' giant Hamtramck plant, closed in 1980 and razed in 1981; GM's Factory Zero now occupies the site.
Related place · 1919–1920
Detroit Symphony Orchestra — Orchestra Hall
Horace and Anna Dodge were key backers of the hall built for the Detroit Symphony Orchestra; still the DSO's home.
Lived here · 1912–1920
Rose Terrace
Demolished · 1912–1976
Horace's Albert Kahn–designed red sandstone mansion; Anna replaced it with a second Rose Terrace in 1934, which was razed in 1976.
Buried here · 1920
Dodge Brothers Mausoleum, Woodlawn Cemetery
The Egyptian Revival family tomb guarded by two sphinxes, where Horace and John Dodge rest.
Memorial
Horace E. Dodge & Son Memorial Fountain
Isamu Noguchi's steel fountain in Hart Plaza, paid for by a bequest from Anna Dodge in memory of Horace and their son.