Greenfield Village Open-Air Museum

Currier Shoe Shop (formerly known as Newton Shoe Shop): Originally from Newton, New Hampshire, this shoe shop, run by William Currier, dates back to the 1880's and represents one of the earlier smaller shoe factories where machinery was used. Mr. Currier, who worked at this building for more than 60 years, would hire neighbors to help run the steam-run machines that drove the stitching machine and buffer as well as do the hand work. During the 19th century there were around two thousand small shoe shop factories in America similar to this one. Because of their size, these shops were called "ten-footers" and were often located beside the shoemaker's home. The cobbler would work all the day and into the evening hours, using the smoky kerosene lantern for light. When this building was located in side of Greenfield Village, originally situated right next to the Cooper Shop (how wonderful that must have been!), it would show many of the objects used by Mr. Currier ...

The year was 1914, and Clara Ford, wife of Henry, watched children play one day as they made their way home from school. A childhood rhyme suddenly came to her, and she said it aloud: 'Hear the children gaily shout, "Half past four and school is out!" ' Henry and Clara both thought the rhyme came from one of the William McGuffey Eclectic Readers, first published in 1836. After a futile search to find which Reader it came from, and through it all amassing a rather large and complete collection of the 145 different editions, he found he had a penchant for collecting. He already had a rather large collection of clocks and watches, which he loved to tinker with as a child. And, he had accumulated objects of his hero, Thomas Edison. So the McGuffey Readers were just another extension of what was quickly becoming his passion. It was around this WWI era that, in part, due to his strong pacifism during that "Great War," a number of newspaper articles expre...

First of all, I have a passion for the past and, for those of us who live in the metro-Detroit area, we are blessed to have what is perhaps the finest open-air historical museum in the United States. What puts Greenfield Village above other places such as Colonial Williamsburg (which is truly in a class all its own), Connor Prairie, Old Sturbridge Village, and other open-air museums? Well, first of all, its SIZE. I mean, 240 total acres available with 90 acres actually being used. Imagine how much more they can expand if they choose to do so! Then there are the historical structures that have been placed there - buildings that, in many cases, were scheduled to be razed. Where else can one go to see the homes of the Wright Brothers, Noah Webster, Harvey Firestone, Robert Frost, and others? How about the building where President Lincoln once practiced law? A doctor's office that went totally untouched for nearly a century before it was donated to the Village? Or the home of the gran...