Greenfield Village Open-Air Museum

This posting is about a near historic tragedy concerning this very important boarding house. If you would like to read about this historic home's history, please click HERE , otherwise read on to find how we very nearly lost a very important piece of not only American history but world history as well. The following is an article that I wrote for the February 2009 newsletter of the Civil War unit I belong to. I did not include the names of the workers as I would like to get their permission first. On Monday January 5, a fire broke out at the Sarah Jordan Boarding House in Greenfield Village and caused heavy damage to the duplex. Many of the original artifacts have been lost, although most were saved. The cause is suspected to be from some roof / gutter construction. All of us who love visiting the Village – whether as re-enactors or as patrons - have been greatly saddened by this awful occurrence. But, there is a bright side to this as well; fortunately, this 1870 duplex was...

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...