Garages, Ground Zero

By OHJ staff

	Today, a replica of the Bagley Avenue shop, built of original bricks, is part of the Henry Ford Museum and Greenfield Village in Dearborn, Mich.

Did garages exist before automobiles? If not, then Detroit is arguably the birthplace of the American car barn, as well as the horseless carriage. An unassuming brick building behind 58 Bagley Avenue is where Henry Ford rolled out his first gas-powered vehicle 111 years ago.

According to legend, young Henry's day gig was chief engineer for the local Edison illuminating Co., but nights he poured castings and turned gears for a two-cylinder engine in the former coal shed he rented from William Wreford. At 2a.m. on June 4, 1896, Ford took a sledge hammer to the front wall--thereby also inventing the first garage door opener--so he could test drive his creation. Wreford was livid when he spied the damage, but the landlord later widened the doorway at his own expense when he saw the flimsy four-wheeler run.

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