Greenfield Village Open-Air Museum

I am sorry to say this historic structure had been removed from the Village during its 2002/03 "renovation" and returned to West Orange, New Jersey (this info comes from the Wren's Cottage site http://www.wrenscottage.com/gvm/index.php). This was the place where Thomas Edison and his staff researched and manufactured wax cylinder records for the phonograph. It was originally located in West Orange. I apologize that I have no photos of the building. Please see the above Wren's Cottage site for a photograph. .

Originally known in its original Macon, Michigan location as the Richart Wagon, Farm Implement, and Repair Shop , this structure was built in 1847. Henry Ford brought this necessity of the 19th century to his Village in 1941. Although handcrafted wagons and buggies were the chief product of their carriage shop, William and Robert Richart also produced, as stated in its original title, farm implements, and even furniture. Bobsleds were a major product made and sold here as well during the winter months. This two story building was built with an outdoor ramp to the second floor, where painting of the product took place. This ramp allowed the carriages easy access to (and from) the ground level. From the research I have found comes a very interesting "flesh-on-the-bones" description of 19th century life with the Richart's: The seasonal nature of life in Macon is one of the most interesting finds in the ledgers. Summer typically busied the Richarts with tool and wagon...

Built on a stone foundation, the Spofford Saw Mill was built in Georgetown, Massachusetts in the late 1600's by John (or possibly son Abner - or both) Spofford. Lumber from this mill was used to make houses, barns, shops, and possibly ships. As with the Tripp Mill (located elsewhere in Greenfield Village), this, too, is an "up-and-down" saw mill, and is one of the earliest water-run saw mills still in existence. The vertical blade flashes up and down while suspended between the two floors of the building, hence, the name "up and down" saw mill. Saw mills were one of the first mills built in local communities, for they supplied the lumber to build all other establishments as well as so many of the household goods and furniture. This mill remained in the Spofford family until the mid-1800's, continuing to serve the community by its new owners until 1925. From what I understand, the Spofford Mill is not all original. In fact, the majority of it was constr...

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...

Originally built in 1860 in the same city that Greenfield Village is in - Dearborn. Throughout the decade that the Village was open, Henry Ford had many projects going on at the same time, adding structures numbering in the 60's. While he was adding to his Village, it seemed he nearly forgot a home brought here back in 1929 - the home of a former school teacher who once taught at the Scotch Settlement School ( http://gfv1929.blogspot.com/2008/08/scotch-settlement-school.htm ), John Chapman. Mr. Chapman is said to have been Henry Ford's first teacher as Ford himself wrote so on the back of a photograph of Mr. Chapman. Others disagree and say a Miss Emilie Nardin, who roomed with the Ford family, was. Still others suggest it might have even been a Mr. Frank Ward. I believe we'll go with Henry's memory - after all, it was Chapman's home that he installed in Greenfield Village, not Nardin or Wards'. Mr. Chapman kept his pupils from 9 a.m. until 4:30 p.m. daily with ...

This building, built in 1840 and originally from the Richmond Hill plantation in Bryan County, Georgia, once housed cotton gins used for separating the seeds from the cotton. At that time, most of the first floor was open, allowing access for horses to the drive mechanism for the gin. A hundred years after it was built it found itself in its new and permanent location north inside of Greenfield Village. When it was initially rebuilt inside of the Village, the first floor remained open, but by 1944 the lower level had been enclosed. It now houses old weaving machines that date from the colonial period through the 19th century, and are demonstrated by skilled weavers. An experienced fly shuttle loom weaver can produce about a foot of fabric an hour. Also on display are a modern electric powered loom and knitting machines. Today, the process of weaving cloth is demonstrated, from colonial hand methods to 20th century power looms. Presenters demonstrate the skill of weaving on a colo...

Once situated on the Fairfield Plantation at the Waccamaw River near Georgetown, South Carolina, this building housed the threshers, grindstones, shafts, and pulleys needed for the miller to do his job of threshing the grains of rice. William Alston had erected this brick building 1787 ( Fairfield Web Site ).  Once situated on the Fairfield Plantation at the Waccamaw River near Georgetown, South Carolina, this building housed the threshers, grindstones, shafts, and pulleys needed for the miller to do his job of threshing the grains of rice. A rice huller or rice husker was an agricultural machine used to automate the process of removing the chaff and the outer husks of rice grain and, although I have no positive proof of this, was more than likely used in this building. ~The master pottery maker working at his craft~ The building is now the pottery shop where visitors can watch artisans complete the traditional process of making pottery, from mixing and forming the...