Henry Ford Museum

The week after we got back from camping, we headed down to Detroit.  Detroit isn't really your popular destination, and perhaps you've read in the news of the city attempting to claim bankruptcy, but we had a place in mind that we wanted to take the kids.

My husband's family is from the Windsor area, and many of his uncles moved into the Detroit area when they married.  While driving along the highway, we witnessed many large old-fashioned homes that have simply been abandoned, at times you would see a whole street of vacant houses.  My in-laws tell me it was once in an influential neighbourhood.  There's nothing more forlorn than an abandoned house.

But we were headed just a little outside downtown Detroit to see the amazing Henry Ford Museum, created by Henry Ford himself.  The museum is in two parts, one is your typical museum indoors with all kinds of implements and inventions gone by the wayside that Henry Ford collected throughout his lifetime.  But outdoors is an entire village made up of the actual buildings of famous people from all walks of life. 



Henry Ford's home



Henry Ford's home

Greenfield Village is full of homes and shops that Henry Ford had brought to this one location and you can wander through everything from the Wright brothers' workshop, to Robert Frost's home.   There's a small working farm, and the lovely farmhouse (below) is complete with furnished rooms and a couple of women were making the midday meal in the kitchen. 

 

The village is complete with the workers in period clothing, and when they walk past you, they're carrying on conversations of the day (farm talk and politics).

These percherons are being harnessed to actually work in the fields ...
 

 

Off they go ....

 

 

Don't you just love being inside an old dusty barn ... the lighting inside is soft golden, and it smells of straw and hay and old-worldliness ...

 

There were a few sheep which they sheared for the wool and prepared for weaving.  The museum has lots of working shops too, including the weaving shop where the women were weaving everything from rag carpets (which I'll show later), to woolen bed spreads.  

 

Everything in the village was working ... even this small steam engine which ran continuously all day long taking visitors around the park.

 

The tin-smith shop with its many tin lanterns hung ready "for sale" ...

 

I've always loved the look of tin, and there was a woman in the shop demonstrating how they made candle holders.

 

The glass blowing is always interesting to watch.  We watched this same process on the island of Murano in Venice, Italy last summer!  The glass blowing here in Detroit was a lot slower going, but perhaps the ovens weren't as hot.  In Murano, the audience could feel the intense heat from the enourmous furnace, and they hurried the demonstration along so that we weren't suffering any effects!

 

This is an antique carousel horse being repaired.  The carousel was also working, and had some beautiful animals that we rode ;)

 

 

Here a couple of workers are cycling around on their turn of the century penny-farthing and two-wheeler.  This couple cycled around all day with big smiles on their faces!   I had to laugh when we saw them hours later, just before the park closed, and the smiles were gone, and they were both rather stoney faced.  I guess even riding a bicycle all day long for a job has it's limits.

 

There were working Model T Fords that you could get a ride in (which of course we did ... my husband is a huge  car enthusiast).  Our own Ford pickup was actually built in Dearborn, Michigan, and we could see the truck plant across the road.  Oddly enough, the lady who drove 'our' little Ford was married to a guy who came from the city beside where we live!  Small world.

 

Below is the Wright brother's bicycle shop where they built their first airplane "Kitty Hawk" in the back of the shop.

 

The building below was full of boilers built by Edison.

 

And who isn't fascinated by steam locomotives?!  This is inside the working roundhouse.  There was a demonstration each day showing how the roundhouse worked.

 

Outside the roundhouse with its pleasing arched doorways ...

 

This shot is from the train as we approached the water tower used to fill the engine with water ...

 

A wonderful blacksmith's shop ...

 

Below is Cotswold Cottage, which was brought over from England.  Unfortunately, there was nothing inside this little cottage, and it was used as a tea room ... I was disappointed with that as all the other buildings were furnished.

 

Below is Robert Frost's home. Isn't it sweet?

Below are photos from a boarding house where workers of Menlo Park lived.  Menlo Park was Edison's laboratory, and that was in the village as well.  Most of the laboratory had to be rebuilt as it was in fairly rough shape when Ford purchased it. 

 

But first the boarding house ...

 

 

This was the first house in America to have electric light!  I guess it paid to house all those scientists ;)

 

The house was owned and run by a young mother, her daughter and one maid.  I loved all the antique quilts adorning the beds, and in the third photo below, you can see the woven rag rugs which were stitched together to make a full carpet  ...

 

This is Menlo Park Laboratory inside.

 

This is a clock-maker's shop, but the village used it as a candy shop and we stopped in for a 2-lb cookie and lemonaide!

 

Another clock repair or jewelry (they were closing up by this time) ....

 

And that was our day in the village.  The next day we spent in the Ford Museum where there were so many interesting things to see.  I think I was quite worn out from the outdoor village the day before, however, and didn't enjoy it quite as much as it deserved. 

 

Here is the limo in which President John F. Kennedy was shot.  It's a bit strange and eerie standing beside this car when you think on the events surrounding the car.

 

Below is the chair in which President Lincoln was assassinated ...

 

 

On a lighter note, this is an unusual vehicle for selling Oscar Meyer Wieners ....

 

 

And for all those fellow campers, or hippies, or vintage lovers, here's the ultimate camping van by VW ...

 

We saw tons more in the museum, all of it interesting and much of it mind provoking.  It was lots of fun and lots of the items were (depressingly) from my own childhood!  I spied this interesting display of American license plates in one of the gift shops ...

 

We don't get to the States very often, but whenever we do go, I'm always impressed by the thoroughness of the museums and tourist areas.  Everything is well maintained and the little details are all in place.

 

Thanks for stopping by!

 

Wendy

 

Thanks Henry :)