Greenfield Village Open-Air Museum

Early in the 19th century, a stage line was operated between Detroit and Tecumseh on what was originally an Indian trail. With the coming of the early settlers from the east, however, it became the settler's route as well. As traveling increased and roads were made possible for stagecoach travel, taverns were built along this route. Originally known as Parks Tavern when built in Clinton, Michigan, around 1831, this building was renamed the Eagle Tavern in 1849 and the name remained until the Civil War. It was one of the first of the taverns built on this road, which eventually extended to Niles, Michigan in 1832, and then, by 1833, the road made it to Chicago, when it became the Chicago Turnpike, and finally Chicago Road/US 12 ( http://www.us12heritagetrail.org/ ). Semi-weekly stages were tried first, but daily coaches soon followed and, before long, there was double daily service, with extra coaches often necessary. This Inn served originally as the first overnight stagecoach...

Although this building, built in 1854 in Waterford, Michigan (about 30 miles north of Detroit), was not the first acquisition Henry Ford made for his new outdoor museum - as far as I have read, that distinction goes to the Scotch Settlement School - the Waterford Country Store was the first structure to arrive at the village site. Purchased in 1927 with the promise to the owner that a new brick building would replace it, the store was dismantled within a month of its purchase and re-erected in the Village shortly after. However, it was not placed in its permanent location facing the village green until spring of 1929. Once settled inside of Ford's new Village, this store was called the Waterford Country Store, in honor of its original location. But shortly after, it received the name Elias A. Brown's General Store due to its stock coming from Mr. Brown's store in New York. This stock was passed on to Mr. Ford with the understanding that the name of the old gentleman ...

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...