Luther Burbank Birthplace (now known as the Burbank Store)

Luther Burbank, famed horticulturalist (see Luther Burbank Office, to read of his work) was born in this circa 1800 house originally located in Lancaster, Massachusetts in 1849. He was the son of a farmer and maker of brick and pottery. He attended the district school until he was 15 and then spent four winters at the Lancaster Academy. Most of his scientific education, however, was obtained from reading at the public library in Lancaster. According to his own account, his reading of Charles Darwin's Variation of Animals and Plants under Domestication in 1868 proved the turning point in his career, causing him to take the production of new species and varieties of plants as his life's work.

In 1870, 2 years after the death of his father, Burbank used his inheritance to help purchase a tract of 17 acres near the small town of Lunenburg, where he took up the business of market gardening. Here he produced his first "creation," the Burbank potato, and began the work that was to make him famous.

Despite his success as a market gardener, in 1875 Burbank decided to sell his land and move to California, where his three older brothers had already moved. He settled in Santa Rosa, where he would carry on his work for the next 50 years.

He died in 1926.

Re-discovered in 1936, architect Ed Cutler and about 50 boys from the famed Wayside Inn schools dismantled Burbank's birthplace during that fall and winter. Interestingly, a later owner of the house split the frame structure in half and constructed a brick building in the middle. Ford bought only the two original wings.
By early summer of 1937, the Burbank House, now put back together as it once was, had found a new home in Greenfield Village.

For years, the seven room Burbank home was portrayed as it was during the time he lived there, and even included the original cradle that Luther's father made for him at his birth. Unfortunately, in recent years, the Village management decided to turn this historic home into a souvenir shop, selling knick-knacks and the like. Hopefully, one day they will return it to it's former glory. (I have no photos of the way it looked before the "store" changeover, I'm sad to say, and I will spare you photographs of the current inside look).
One need only to eye the Noah Webster Home directly across the street from Burbank's for historical presentation done well.

.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Maps Through Time: The Ever-changing Lay Out of Greenfield Village

Image
From its inception over 80 years ago through today, Greenfield Village has gone through numerous layouts, which is no easy task considering that it is actual buildings - historic buildings - that are being moved. I'm sure with each change there were complaints. Well, of course, unless it was Mr. Ford's idea. No one disagreed with the Big Guy. But, even with the last major restructuring in 2003 their were disgruntled customers. My opinion is as long as it's kept historically accurate, I don't mind. What I thought I'd do here was to show, through original six maps from six different decades, the ever-growing and ever-changing history of Greenfield Village. To see the graphics larger, please click onto the photo. Our first map takes us back to October 29, 1929 - that very first rainy day that Henry Ford opened up his Greenfield Village to special guests. Here was Mr. Ford's original vision: Twelve years later, in 1941, one can see just how much the Village grew: ...
Read more

Grimm Jewelry Store

Image
When Englebert Grimm died in 1931, he bequeathed the contents of his store to his good friend Henry Ford, and Grimm's surviving daughter honored that request in 1932. Originally built in 1878 (or possibly 1885 - I have two different sources from the Village) at 2033 Michigan Avenue, Ford obtained the building from the City of Detroit for a $195 salvage fee and, in 1940, had it re-erected inside Greenfield Village. This was the shop where young Henry would stop to visit the owner and sometimes purchase tools or parts to repair watches. Grimm was a German immigrant who, with his family, lived on in the second floor of this building, creating a modest modern home for its time. He offered mass-produced inexpensive clocks, watches, and jewelry to the local Detroit area residents. It was specialty stores such as this that caused the demise of the general store. It is set now as it was in the late 1880's. I have been told that many of the watches inside are those that Henry Ford actu...
Read more

Sarah Jordan Boarding House

Image
This house, built in 1870, originally stood near the laboratory where Thomas Edison and his men toiled in Menlo Park, New Jersey. Widowed in 1877, "Aunt Sally," as Sarah was known, lived in Newark, and was sent for in 1878 by her distant relative, Thomas Edison, to run a place for his workers to eat and sleep. With little employment opportunities for women, Mrs. Jordan accepted the offer and opened the home as a boarding house that same year. Several of Edison's single employees lived here and would sleep two to three to a bed in the six rooms on the second floor. In fact, at the height of the laboratory's activities in 1880, sixteen boarders called this structure 'home.' Edison's house, a good-sized residence, was down the road a short ways. Daily, the 'Wizard of Menlo Park' passed the Jordan Boarding House to and from his laboratory, walking atop the wood-plank walk, wearing a skull cap or a farmer's wide-brimmed straw hat, both hands...
Read more