One of six brand-new Model Ts drove through the fairgrounds of Old Bethpage Village this weekend as part of Ford Motor Company's 100-city tour celebrating its 100th birthday.

The stop at the Nassau County park on Saturday, May 24, included a children's art contest in which Ford designer Jim Smithbauer talked to youngsters about car design and awarded prizes to drawings of the best Ford cars, trucks and tractors of the last century. He also gave prizes for artwork that illustrated youngsters' visions of what future personal transportation will look like. The creations of the future often as not were wheel-less air and water conveyances.

Owners of classic Ford cars and trucks - from early Model Ts to a 1960 F-series pickup - participated in the day that celebrated rural life before and after Henry Ford's moving assembly line made cars affordable for families.

During a preview on Friday, May 23, Nassau County Executive Tom Suozzi welcomed the Ford historians and employees to Old Bethpage Village Restoration, pointing out that the Model T was often used by farmers in the fields during the day, then cleaned up to take the family to church on Sunday. Judy Jacobs, presiding officer of the Nassau County Legislature, and Nassau County Parks Commissioner Doreen Banks also attended and wished Ford employees a good second century. Suozzi, Smithbauer and Model T historian Guy Zaninovich blew out 100 candles on the Ford birthday cake.

Zaninovich led a team of 250 Ford employees who built six versions of the Model T to celebrate Ford's centennial. The Model T100, as it is called, was painstakingly created from blueprints and research of the 1914 Model T. That was the year in which Ford's moving assembly line was fully installed and the Model T outsold its nearest competitor 10-to-1. It was also the first year that all Model Ts were painted black, in order to speed the assembly process.

"Ford is particularly pleased to make Old Bethpage Village Restoration its New York metropolitan stop because of the importance that the farm held for Henry Ford," Smithbauer said. "His childhood spent doing farm work gave him a passion for making life easier for rural families. As he designed the Model T, it had to be rugged, useful, and simple to fix with tools every farmer owned. His creation changed farms forever."

Inside a Ford tent at the village fairgrounds, historians took families through displays that highlight the century of change sparked by Henry Ford. Included were models of some of the most important Fords of the century and a video that highlighted Henry Ford's moving assembly line that put all manner of products within reach of the average family; the $5 a day paycheck for factory workers that led to the rise of America's middle class; and the iconic Rouge complex near Detroit that took in raw material on one end and issued finished cars.

Also on display outside the village were four of Ford's most important modern vehicles, including a prototype of the 2004 Ford F-150 pickup truck, which is the perennial best-selling vehicle in America; the Kitty Hawk edition of the Lincoln Aviator luxury sport-utility vehicle, built to celebrate the centennial of manned flight; the 2003 Thunderbird; and the limited-edition Ford Mustang Mach 1, with the "shaker hood" reminiscent of muscle cars of the 1960s.

Old Bethpage Village Restoration is a project of Nassau County Department of Parks and Recreation. The village celebrated its Spring Festival during the Memorial Day weekend.