Henry Ford and Richmond Hill

High school students at Bradwell Institute by 1937 were invited annually to afternoon “socials” in the community center at Richmond Hill. It was built and operated by Henry Ford for his approximately 1,000 employees when he estab­lished a home, plantation, and agricultural-industrial develop­ment on the Ogeechee River in Bryan County, Georgia.

The students were transported to Richmond Hill in school buses early on an autumn afternoon. They were escorted to a hall on the second floor of the community center by hostesses employed by Ford. The hall was beautifully decor­ated and furnished. A band played for dancing, and there was refreshments. Ford sometimes attended the events and shook hands with the young people. He like to see them having a good time.

Henry Ford died in 1947 and that brought an end to his plantation and projects on 80,000 acres of land in Bryan County, Georgia. It was on the plantation that the Ford­-Ferguson tractor and the V-8 engine were developed.