Dodge's Widow Tore Down 3 of Her Own Houses | Then They Bulldozed Her Palace: Rose Terrace

Anna Dodge tore down three houses in her lifetime. Her husband's red sandstone mansion on Lake St. Clair. The half-built frame of the palace that replaced it, because it "won't do." And the largest house in Palm Beach, after a town council and a court told her she couldn't turn it into a school. In the summer of 1976, the fourth house came down without her: Rose Terrace, the 75-room chateau in Grosse Pointe Farms, Michigan, she built during the Depression and lived in until she died. Five years before the bulldozers, Rose Terrace was on the National Register of Historic Places. Its owner had left an estate of about $100 million. A museum was offered the house as a gift. None of it saved it. This film follows the money from the Dodge brothers' lawsuit against Henry Ford to the $146 million sale of Dodge Brothers, through Horace Trumbauer and Julian Abele's palace on the lake, to the 1976 sale where buyers took the driveway, the bushes and even the roof. And it explains why the original house it was copied from, Miramar in Newport, is still standing. CHAPTERS 0:00 She tore down three houses. The fourth was torn down for her 1:26 Why nothing could stop the bulldozers 2:22 A piano teacher from Dundee 4:19 Dodge v. Ford: the lawsuit behind the fortune 5:13 Two brothers, eleven months, $146 million 6:32 The first Rose Terrace 7:41 Palm Beach and Hugh Dillman 8:22 "It won't do": a palace in the Depression 11:35 $4, $7 or $9 million? 12:26 Playa Riente: she sued the town, then tore it down 14:51 Delphine, Horace Jr. and the empty years 15:59 The museum's $10 million condition 17:28 Christie's and the National Register 18:02 What the National Register can't do 20:15 Even the roof: summer 1976 21:12 Miramar: the original that survived 22:08 Why nothing saved Rose Terrace 23:08 What's left on the shore today SOURCES Wikipedia — Rose Terrace (Grosse Pointe Farms, Michigan); Horace Elgin Dodge; Dodge v. Ford Motor Co.; Julian Abele; Miramar (mansion); SS Delphine (1921); Gregg Sherwood Grosse Pointe Historical Society — The Dodge Family American Aristocracy — Rose Terrace (1934) Katie Doelle, Historical Architecture of Grosse Pointe — The History of Rose Terrace Detroit Historical Society, Encyclopedia of Detroit — Anna Dodge Michigan State Historic Preservation Office — National Register of Historic Places: Results of Listing The Henry Ford — Isamu Noguchi's Hart Plaza Frick Archives Directory for the History of Collecting — Anna Thomson Dodge Dundee Women's Trail — Anna Dodge MotorCities National Heritage Area — Rose Terrace NavSource — USS Dauntless (PG-61) Avenue Magazine — Gregg Dodge Palm Beach Post via Dayton Daily News — Ghost mansions of Palm Beach Half Pudding Half Sauce — Offered at $1,250,000: Rose Terrace Where sources disagree, the film says so. #Dodge #GildedAge #LostMansions