verlooking the wooded banks of the Rouge River, the Sun Porch was the ideal place to indulge Henry and  Clara Ford's passion for bird watching. Here nature came indoors. With telescopes the Fords could focus on some of the 500 birdhouses scattered around the grounds or perhaps on one of the estate's 30 white peacocks as they strutted among the indigo irises or hollyhocks blooming in Clara Ford's Blue Garden . 

A young relative wrote it was on this porch that "Henry would bring in stones and shells, animals and birds, spread out maps or plans or drawings, and tell interesting things."