Greenfield Village

On Saturday, we drove back over to the area near the Henry Ford Museum to visit another area that Ford created, Greenfield Village.

Coming in to the entrance area of Greenfield Village (administration building behind us).

One of the first buildings was the Soybean Lab Agriculture Gallery -- we didn't take pictures of the farm implements (it was dark and hard to distinguish one from another), but the information on Ford's explorations on the use of soybeans in car manufacturing was interesting.

We are wanting to get desks made for Gracie -- Carl thought this design that we saw in the Firestone Farm farmhouse might be good for the rocking and rolling down the road -- just close it up and go!

There were chickens outside and sheep inside the barn - this sheep was standing on the edge of the hay rack and enjoying easy access to the hay...

... compared to his compatriots.

This one was basking in the warmth of the sun.

We then walked over to the area called Liberty Craftworks...

What an odd looking chimney, the sign said, for decorative reasons only.

Glassblowing

This was an example of what they were making.

The docent who was narrating had an interesting mask on... but I have to say that he spoke very clearly and it was easy to hear and understand!

Over in the potter's shop, the potter was cutting out clay ornaments...

She was making gingerbread men like the one shown here as a finished product.

At the roundhouse, we saw the turntable used to put the engines (or cars) for repair into the right berth. A docent there told us that a single person can turn the turntable with an engine on it because it is so well balanced.

We sat on a bench near the roundhouse and ate a snack and watched the cars and horse-drawn carriages go by.

This looked like a farm truck doing its work.

zoomed in

We went in to Edison Illuminating which houses early commercial electric generating equipment,

... including Jumbo 9.

On the carousel, one of the animals was a cat!

... with a cute little girl riding it!

Along Main Street, the Wright Family Home had been moved here...

A copy of the telegraph sent home after their successful flights. There are two mistakes that the docent pointed out to us -- the longest flight was 59 seconds, and Orville's name is misspelled.

Next door on Main Street in Greenfield Village (it was 4 blocks away originally in Dayton, Ohio) was the Wright Brothers Cycle Shop.

Carl looking in the storefront while a horse and wagon pass by on the street outside.

The backroom of the Cycle Shop where the brothers built their Wright Flyer.

Replica of the Bagley Avenue Workshop

The quadricycle (a reproduction, I think).

"When tillage beings, other arts follow. The farmers, therefore, are the founders of human civilization." Daniel Webster, lawyer and polititician

As we were heading out the gate to go to the Jeep to get our lunch, the train was loading up...

... Ready to go!

The railroad crossing clanged and had a swinging stop light.

On its way.

A nice man saw us preparing to take a selfie and offered to take a picture of us!

After lunch, we headed back into the village to see the Edison at Work portion.

Inside the machine shop

Galvanometer inside the laboratory

Phonograph

The docent demonstrated the phonograph's use - one person would turn the wheel while another shouted into the microphone (he is pointing toward it) which put bumps on the thin foil...

... to play the recording back, the wheel would need to be turned at the same speed as during the recording, and a funnel placed over what had been the microphone turned it into a speaker.

Upstairs in the laboratory...

... other end of the laboratory.

Sounds like Edison was a politician!

We were heading back out to the Jeep to head back to the campground, when we noticed it was almost the top of the hour and we might be able to see the clock figures go...

We saw the horse-drawn bus go by... but no figures moving on the clock....

When we crossed the street to read the sign, we found that the clock figures are under repair... oh well!

Heinz House (we didn't go inside, we were tired!)

The depot area is where folks boarded the cars to ride them around the village ($8 per person) -- I wanted a picture with the mural "Watch the Fords Go By" (on the left side of the picture) -- unfortunately, there were some folks walking over there, but... you can see it anyway!

A picture in the gift shop.

We enjoyed our day in Greenfield Village, though we both agreed that we liked the Henry Ford Museum better. One thing I found a little confusing is that, at least in my experience in Williamsburg and Jamestown, the "town" is representing a particular period of history. When I asked about this, one of the docents indicated that it represented the time of Henry Ford's life (1863-1947). That's a long period, and it appeared that different buildings/components might represent different times -- for example, Ford's boyhood home was re-created by him to look as he recalled it from before he was 12 (when his mother passed away in childbirth), so maybe 1875 -- but the cars driving around the town would have been from the 19-teens to 1920s.