Wednesday, October 31, 2012

Greenfield Village

The second section of the Ford Museum is called Greenfield Village. Nearly one hundred historical buildings were moved to the property from their original locations and arranged in a "village" setting. The museum's intent is to show how Americans lived and worked since the founding of the country. The Village includes buildings from the 17th century to the present, many of which are staffed by costumed interpreters who conduct period tasks like farming, sewing and cooking.   It is such a fun place to walk around and see how influential Americans of the past lived.


The very first thing we did in the village was ride in a Model T!  They have about 6 different Model T's available for a spin around the village.







This is the cycle shop that the Wright Brothers were working at while they were developing their ideas about flight.











Our next stop was Edison's invention complex, which is a group of buildings that were places of creation and thought for the famous Mr. Edison.




This room was my favorite room that we saw in the village.  It was just filled with the neatest, scientific gadgets and all the walls were lined with bottles of all sorts of shapes and sizes filled with different minerals, powders and liquids in a variety of colors.  It was magical.













Then we took a stroll down one of the main streets enjoying the delicious, brisk fall weather, the changing leaves and all the charming homes and details of the village.











This beautiful home belonged to Noah Webster.  While living in this house, Noah Webster completed his American Dictionary and published his revised version of the Bible.





And this wonderful neoclassical home belonged to the one and only Robert Frost.  They have a recording of Mr. Frost himself reading his famous poem The Road Not Taken, it was fun to hear his voice while touring his home.





I loved the carousel they had in the middle of one of the main squares.  It was built in 1913 and had some of the most unique carousel animals I have ever seen.





Our last stop was at the craftsman square which is a collection of craft buildings such as pottery, glass-blowing, and tin shops provide demonstrations while producing materials used in the Village and for sale.












Our visit to the Henry Ford and Greenfieild Village concluded our wonderful trip to Michigan. The next day, we flew back home to Utah.  Hope you have enjoyed looking through the posts of all the fun things we did in this beautiful state!