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Why did Henry Ford build Lovett Hall in Dearborn, Michigan?
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folk dance
Peasant Dance, oil on wood by Pieter Bruegel the Elder, c. 1568; in the Kunsthistorisches Museum, Vienna.
Henry Ford built Lovett Hall in Dearborn, Michigan, in 1926 specifically to promote and encourage square dancing.1
Ford was a significant proponent of the folk dance movement in the United States, frequently organizing large-scale dancing parties for his employees and their families. By constructing this massive dance hall, he sought to provide a venue for these activities, partly as a moral alternative to the popular dances of the era, such as the Charleston, which he and others viewed as lascivious. Lovett Hall remained a hub for square dancers until 2005.1