Jerald Mitchell would sometimes come home from a long day of work, trudge up the stairs with his hand on the banister and feel buoyed by the fact that decades prior, the home's first owner had taken the same path.

"There are times when you're particularly aware of the history," said Mitchell, who said he thinks of those first owners — Henry and Clara Ford — "almost every day."

"I never considered it our house," he said. "It was always Mr. Ford's house, and we were the stewards."

After nearly 40 years of stewardship, Mitchell and his wife, Marilyn, are looking for the next generation of caretakers. They're planning to sell the house, at 140 Edison St. in Detroit's Boston-Edison district, and move into assisted living in Ann Arbor.

The couple, both former Wayne State University professors — he in the medical school, she in the department of humanities — intend to list it next week for $975,000. Mitchell is anxious about selling, he said. After the years he spent improving it, caring for it and advocating for it, it will soon be someone else's responsibility — and there's no knowing if they will take the same level of care.

The Mitchells moved to Detroit from Texas in the 1970s to be part of the city's renaissance. They bought a historic house, Mitchell said, and went to work restoring it. When a few years later the Edison Street property became available, Mitchell said he felt compelled to preserve it, too.

Getting there took some effort. The house was owned by the Temple of Light, a group that Mitchell said combined Christianity and astrology. The Canadian magazine Maclean's reported a decade ago that Rev. Florence B. Crews and her husband, O. James Crews, who was known on local radio broadcasts as the "Voice of the Planets," read horoscopes for pay and "walled in the fireplace, hung heavy curtains in the windows and filled Ford's parlor with enough folding chairs to accommodate the dozens of worshipers who gathered there on Thursday and Sunday nights." They lived there from 1941 until the Mitchells bought it in 1985.

It wasn't an easy acquisition, Mitchell said. After the Rev. did his reading several times, "the stars never came in alignment." But the negotiations continued and he was ultimately successful.

The church made some changes to the house, Mitchell said, tearing down walls that he put back up and converting the kitchen to a social space. But much of the house, built in 1908, remained intact. Most of the toilets and tubs are original and a sort of intercom system, while not functioning, remains in place. Most of the fixtures, too, are original, Mitchell said.

The Fords lived in the house from the time it was built until 1915, when they moved to their Fair Lane estate for more privacy. The Edison Street years coincided with the debut of the Model T and Ford's decision to offer a $5-a-day wage for workers; they left the house in an effort to gain more privacy after people continuously knocked on the front door asking for jobs, said Mark Campbell, the treasurer and chief operating officer of the Henry Ford Heritage Association and a great-great nephew of Clara Ford.

Mitchell said he had always had preservationist tendencies, but was never really into cars — now, he drives only Fords; the driveway was built for a Model T and he can't imagine non-Ford vehicles in the space. Since buying the house, he's also led the preservation efforts at the Piquette Avenue Plant, where the Model T was first built.

"Acquiring this house was a life-changing event, in a positive way," he said. "All of a sudden, I had a huge responsibility to a lot of people. ... There were a lot of sleepless nights, a lot of what-ifs, always."

The home is listed by the Michigan Historical Commission; Mitchell said having its history recognized was an early priority for him.

"Being a steward of such a property, it gave me a meaning and a focus in life," he said. "I have never doubted for a moment it was an important thing to do."

The plaque on the corner where the home sits says the seven years the Fords lived there "were the most creative of Mr. Ford's career," noting the mass production of the Model T and his moves on wages, "which revolutionized American life and industry and reverberated around the world."

But will buyers see the same history that Mitchell did?

Listing agents Julie and Frank Flynn, with The Agency Hall & Hunter, said they've reached out to Model T Ford clubs and others in the automotive world who might be as enticed by the history as they are the house itself.

"The word is spreading," Realtor Julie Flynn said of the parties that might be interested.

In an ideal world, Mitchell said he'd like to see the home preserved as a museum house. Though Associate Broker Frank Flynn said it's rare to see a home of that era "unmolested," it seems unlikely.

Cynthia Sohn, the director of operations at Fair Lane, said they did not have plans to purchase any more property — and fund restrictions likely wouldn't allow it. Mark Heppner, the president and CEO of the historic estate of Edsel and Eleanor Ford, said it didn't have the same value as other historic properties. And Campbell, with the Henry Ford Heritage Association, said the money needed to make it into a museum would take away from fundraising efforts happening at other Ford sites.

"Right now, it just doesn't make any sense," Campbell said. "For us to try to make that happen, it would just harm so many other places."

Additionally, he said, Boston-Edison neighbors likely wouldn't want the traffic and tourism that came with having a museum down the street.

Campbell said the Edison house is the second that the Fords owned; they first built what's known as The Square House in Westland upon getting married, then rented once they moved to Detroit until they built the property on Edison. Clara Ford designed the house, Campbell said, including a tiered backyard garden (the garden remains, though a pond has been covered) and a greenhouse.

The property also includes garages with car washes; Edsel Ford, who was a teenager in the home, had a workshop over the garage in which he learned and tinkered.

"This would be, like, my dream house," said Heppner, who also said he's not in a position to buy it. "That was their first real dream home. ... For them, they made it. It was the physical manifestation of his success."

Heppner said he suspects many "Fordophiles" would have trouble affording a nearly $1 million price tag, not to mention the costs to modernize parts of the home. While the house was an important part of history, he said, "it really doesn't mean much to us today" — especially not without a well thought-out plan to show something about the family that wasn't available elsewhere.

"In my humble opinion, we have enough of those out there," he said of Ford-related properties. "We've done fine without it."

The house has thick wood, an upstairs ballroom-turned-sitting-area, five bedrooms and four-and-a-half baths and quirks like dusting and sleeping porches and a kitchen flour bin. Clara Ford's hat boxes are still there, as are ledges in Edsel Ford's room where he placed his drawings. The home is 7,200 square feet, with a carriage house of about 1,100 square feet that has a bedroom, bathroom, kitchen and living room.

"It's the most historically significant house in Detroit," Mitchell said. "I hope it continues to be preserved as a legacy. It would be tragic if the house were to be modernized."

But that's exactly what some others said should happen.

"If you're going to live there, it should have modern conveniences," Campbell said of potential buyers. "They should make it their own. The interior should be something you can live in."

That's what the Flynns expect to happen, too. Frank Flynn said someone who was less married to maintaining the historical accuracy could easily lighten the house up. With work, he said, it could be worth many times what it's on the market for.

"We know what the house is lacking, but it's an honest house," he said. "We're not marketing this as a modern amenity type property. ... We think the next owner will update it in a timeless fashion."

But Mitchell, still, said he thinks beautiful, historic things should be preserved. Getting the house in the shape it's in has "always been an uphill battle, but with some great successes," he said.

"People had forgotten about this place," he said. "I don't mind passing it on, because I've done enough. If it passes to the right hands, it would be beautiful. But I'll be anxious until it happens."

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