Tuesday, September 7, 2010

Greenfield Village

Dear Reader,

I've been really busy lately, so I haven't had time to post all of my adventures in Michigan yet. So I'm going to do this in installments.

Today's Michigan featurette: Greenfield Village. The story behind Greenfield Village is, essentially, Henry Ford decided to build a historic village in the middle of Dearborn. He rebuilt actual houses that at one point belonged to famous people in history, as well as houses that exemplify certain time periods. Some houses are just recreations of what the actual houses looked like, but for the most part they're all legit historical buildings.









Sheep. Very important parts of history.


Model T. As Henry Ford said: "Any customer can have a car painted any colour that he wants so long as it is black." Well said, Mr. Ford.


The Wright brothers' bicycle store. There's a part of an airplane in the back....


At a hat store.


Thomas Edison's house.


Southern plantation.


The oldest windmill in the country.


The kitchen of a Connecticut farmhouse in the 1800's.


Cotswold cottage, from England. Basically, I'm in love.


Webster's house. Interesting fact: This house is from the same time period as the 1800's farm kitchen two pictures up, and both homeowners made the same amount of money. The farmer just put his money in his crops, while Webster, living in town, put money into his house to make it nice for his neighbors.



Robert Frost's house in Michigan. Did I say Michigan? Yes I did! Apparently he lived in Michigan. See for yourself:



I know, sorry, the font is tiny. But I promise it says that he lived in Ann Arbor.


The home of the grandson of a freed slave (originally owned by the freed slave).





The kitchen of the freed slave's home in the 1930's.






My favorite part of Greenfield Village is in this little square. This is the crafty part of the village, where they have weaving, tin making, printing, and, my favorite: glass blowing. It is so cool. We watched them make a bowl. We also got frozen custard and rock candy. I can't leave Greenfield Village without getting rock candy. It's tradition.




3 comments:

  1. I didn't realize until today that the Frost home was from Ann Arbor. Cool.

    The sheep, of course, are part of the working Firestone Farm. I used to think it was a really boring part of the village until I actually talked to some of the people there. It's pretty cool (and the chickens just wander around...)

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  2. I do not see sheep...? We knitters are always on the lookout for sheep...

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  3. Isn't the third picture of sheep? I thought that's what those were...

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