Greenfield Village Open-Air Museum

Henry Ford purchased the 1832 Loranger Gristmill, located on Sunny Creek near Monroe, Michigan, in January of 1928. It was one of the few structures moved to the Village without prior disassembly. Ford added a wing during its reconstruction in the Village to house the new power source: a steam engine and boiler. During the Village's restoration in 2003, this Ford-added power source edition was removed, and a traditional water wheel and a relocation to a newly formed creek had taken place - one of the very few segments of said restoration that I agree with. (The photo directly above is of Ford's version. All other photos were taken after the 2003 restoration). From colonial times and into the first half of the nineteenth century, gristmills flourished in America by meeting an important local need in agricultural communities: grinding the farmers' grain with large, circular stones, and levying a toll, usually in kind, for the service. This particular mill was originally ...

Without a doubt, the last building Ford added before the October 21, 1929 grand opening of Greenfield Village was the replicated Tintype Studio. As Ed Cutler relates: "The last headache was the day before the celebration. The boss came along and wanted a tintype shop and we had to have that tintype shop in one day. Ebling (Ford photographer) worked his fool head off. I think he got his wife's curtains down there to put on the windows. His wife and mother-in-law fixed up the curtains for the skylight. He had to get the thing operating for the next day. We had t o paint (it) to get it in shape, and then it started to rain. It rained all the day of the celebration." Of course, once the grand opening was completed, Ford finished off the studio correctly, using linen for the skylights and decorating the inside for a more accurate portrayal. It was designed to look like a studio from the 1870's and 1880's. Large cities and small towns all across America in the last hal...

Originally built as a machine shop by William McDonald in 1888 in Lapeer, Michigan, this structure today serves as a flexible program space and as refreshment location adjacent to Liberty Craftworks. It was brought to the Village in 1929. Unfortunately, that is all the information I have on this structure at this time. Check back for updated information this winter. .

In early American towns the village blacksmith crafted many different products at his forge. Anything made of metal the blacksmith probably made or was handed down from a previous generation or transported at tremendous cost. In a small village the blacksmith was the hardware store the carriage repair shop the metal pan repair place the place where you had horse's shoes put on In some places the blacksmith married couples Made of stone, this blacksmith shop, one of two in Greenfield Village, was used for many different types of iron works and for the shoeing of horses. The Village, for years, hired a "smithy" for the patrons to watch and admire as he honed his craft, using the bellows and other original tools of the period. As he hammered at the molten metal against the anvil, the sparks would fly and the sound was heard quite a distance, drawing more patrons to the opened doors. ...

As stated in the chapter about the Martha-Mary Chapel, Henry Ford felt the Village Green would not be complete without a church and a town hall. The two buildings were almost built simultaneously in 1929 and faced each other across the green. While the church was based on an actual church in Massachusetts, the town hall was a completely original design by Ed Cutler, a fair representation of the early 1800's Greek Revival style. In a typical village, it was at the town hall that the villagers met in formal session to debate their local problems and to vote and elect local and national representatives. It was the center of everything that went on in a small country community, and when village business was not being conducted, local and traveling performing groups used the stage to entertain with song, dance, and melodrama. Although at one time, during the 1940's and 1950's, this town hall was used as a school (as were many of the buildings in the Village - a unique "lear...

By mid 1929, Henry Ford's Village was falling into place nicely. He knew what buildings he owned - whether they were already in the Village or were in the process of being removed to the Village from other locations - and he had in his mind what he wanted in place for the October dedication ceremony. However, in the area of what was considered to be the center of activity - the Village Green - were two structures conspicuously absent: a church and a town hall. I'm not sure why Mr. Ford did not find and purchase an authentic period church and town hall, but instead he instructed his right-hand man, Ed Cutler, to design and build each structure right there in the Village, of which commenced simultaneously, facing each other at the front and back of the Village Green. This non-denominational chapel design was based on a Universalist church in Bradford, Massachusetts. The bricks and the doors came from the building in which Henry Ford and Clara Bryant were married in 1888 - the Bry...

Housed with functional authentic machinery powered by leather belts attached to an overhead line shaft from the company's Rhode Island plant, this replica of the original 19th century machine shop was built in Greenfield in 1928-29. It is typical of the plants constructed in the 1870's and '80's. It was during the 1880's that the workers here manufactured high-speed steam engines for the Edison Illuminating Companies. Other original Armington and Sims equipment includes drawing tables, desks, tools, safes, and hand presses. At one time, Greenfield Village craftsmen used this building for the restoration of antique machinery. .