The Rouge Park Recreation Center 1925-1984

In 1914, Charles E. Sorensen, Henry Ford's right hand man and the chief developer of the first assembly line, built his country estate on land purchased from Henry Ford’s uncle along the Rouge River, north of Warren Avenue in Dearborn Township. Just ten years later, he sold the estate on 137 acres to the City for $300,000 (nearly $10 million in 2025 dollars), one of 26 farms purchased for the creation of Rouge Park. ​

In 1926, the city built an addition on the east side of the building and later opened it to the public. At first, it was referred to as the Casino, and later formally as the Rouge Park Recreation Center, though it was affectionately known by park visitors as simply The White House.
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​In the 1930s, it became a hub for community and club meetings and events including the annual Soap Box Derby that began in 1935. With the completion of the Wildwood Trail near the center by the Louisa St. Clair chapter of the Daughters of the American Revolution in 1935, and the founding of the Detroit News Hiking Club there in 1936, the center became a base for nature hiking and social club meetings.

In 1938, a $510,805 work relief project by the WPA (Works Progress Administration) hired 500 unemployed men to build the stone promenade along the river with two sets of stone steps leading down from the center. At the end of the promenade, a dam was built creating Sorensen Lake. Several other bridges and other beautification projects were completed as well. A wading pool across Spinoza Dr. from the promenade was built around this time, possibly also part of the WPA project. ​

During World War II, recreational Camp River Rouge Park opened north of Joy Rd. between Lahser Rd. and Spinoza Dr. with tents to accomodate 500 soldiers at a time on leave.  Barracks for another 500 soldiers of the 728th Battalion of the Military Police were built in the same area, and the recreation center was given over for the exclusive use of these soldiers during the war.

After the war, the center reached its height of popularity with over 100 separate clubs, including photography, garden, neighborhood, cooking, hiking, youth, singles and a myriad other clubs calling the White House home by the 1950s and ‘60s.  ​

In 1967, the front lawn of the center was the site of the vicious murder of Daniel Thomas by a group of inebriated young white men who were later acquitted by an all-white jury. Afterwards, use of the center declined. It was then closed as a result of budget cuts in the 1970s and ‘80s. In 1984, the vacant building burned and was demolished.

​In 2018, with a grant from the Motor Cities Heritage Association, the Friends of Rouge Park opened the Sorensen Automotive History Interpretive Trail along the Stone Promenade. In 2020 and 2021, a new paved walking path, picnic shelter, playground, soccer and baseball field were added on the former grounds of the recreation center. In 2022, Friends of Rouge Park re-dedicated the Ma'iingan Wildwood Trail in honor of DAR member, and key proponent of the original 1935 nature trail, Etta S. Wilson, with a new boulder and plaque to replace the original one stolen in 1951.

This fall, construction will begin on a new Rouge Park Recreation Center attached to the Brennan Pools Building. We dream of it becoming a new hub of activity for the park again and help in the revitalization of this great Detroit landmark park.