Henry Ford Trade School Gave Underprivileged Boys Path to Better Life

In December of 1911, Henry Ford and his wife Clara opened the 80-acre Valley Farm School in a western area of Dearborn, Michigan. Located near Michigan Avenue and Monroe Street, the farm was licensed by the State Board of Corrections and Charity to provide a safe home and occupational training for orphans and other children whose parents were unable to take care of them.

In 1916, six students from the Farm were moved to the AA Building at the Highland Park plant to be trained as mechanics, and thus began the Henry Ford Trade School. Over the next 35 years, more than 8,000 boys would graduate from this school, having spent about one third of their instructional time on academic work and two thirds on shop work.

Preference in admission to the Henry Ford Trade School was given to orphans, sons of widows, and boys from underprivileged homes. The students, aged 12 to 18, earned a stipend for general living expenses and to help their families. The stipend started at twenty cents per hour and was raised one cent per hour with every six weeks of successful performance. The company also provided health and dental care and paid into a savings fund for each student to be paid out upon graduation.

In 1927 a second branch of the Trade School was established at the B Building at the Rouge, and in 1930, as the Trade School reached its peak enrollment of almost 3,000 students, the entire program was consolidated at that site. The first official Trade School diplomas were awarded in 1937 and its first official commencement ceremony took place at the Rotunda two years later.

Mechanical subjects studied at the school included woodworking, welding, electrical, engineering and repair. Academic studies were similar to any other school, including math, English, history, and public speaking. Many extracurricular opportunities were available to students, such as band, chorus, radio club, sports teams, and writing for the school's newsletter - The Artisan.

Camp Legion, a 500-acre training facility near Dearborn stared by Ford Motor Company in 1938, was added to the Trade School in 1944. This addition allowed for more robust academic offerings, as farming and agricultural studies were the main focus of students at the Camp. The Trade School continuously updated their educational standards to meet the changing academic diploma requirements of the state.

By the early 1950s, educational opportunities in skilled trades had become widely available and Ford Motor Company recognized the new shift towards professional education needs. In 1951, the decision was made to end the Henry Ford Trade School program, and it closed the following year. All of the assets of the school were donated to the City of Dearborn and were consolidated into what was then re-named Henry Ford Community College, which offered a wide variety of professional classes.

There were also other forms of the Trade Schools at Ford over the years, including the Foreign Student Section (The Ford English School), that worked with foreign-born students from around the world and taught them English, as well as a trade. There were also summer programs designed to help needy children learn how to grow and sell their own food for income.