Henry Ford's Greenfield Village in Dearborn, Michigan

Greenfield Village is a historical treasure that not a lot of people may know about. In my opinion it's better than Williamsburg, but I'm probably a bit partial since I live close to Greenfield Village and have spent a lot of time there over the years.  

Greenfield Village had it's start in the late 1920s when a new road forced the reloation of Henry Ford's birthplace. Henry decided to not only move the home, but to also restore and refurbish it to match his boyhood recollections. The restoration received so mucy press that he was inundated with requests to save other buildings, and that's exactly what he did. Greenfield Village is a collection of historical buildings that are spread out over 90 acres. There are always special events going on and many of the buildings have interpretors dressed in period clothing who tell you about the building and the time period it represents. Model T's and horse-drawn buggies are driven through the streets and you can imagine that you've really gone back in time to a different era. I love going for a stroll through the Village and I seem to learn something new every time I go. Come along and I'll show you some of my favorite sites:

Sir John Bennet was a clock, watch and jewelry maker in London, England. It was five stories at its original London site, but Henry Ford scaled it down to two stories when he brought it to the village in 1931. The figures beneath the clock are Gog and Magog, the mythical protectors of England, and they come alive as the clock chimes on the hour. There are quite a few benches across from the clock so people can sit and wait for the hourly show.

The Martha-Mary Chapel is on the village green. It was built in 1929 as a tribute to Henry Ford's mother, Mary Litogot Ford, and his mother-in-law, Martha Bench Bryant. The church is used for weddings and there's a long waiting list. There is a story that during one of the weddings many years ago a stray goat (or was it a lamb?) walked into the church in the middle of the ceremony.

The Farris windmill was operated by the Farris family for three generations and used to grind corn. It was built in the mid-1600s in Cape Cod, Massachusetts.  This windmill is said to be the oldest windmill in the United States.

This isn't a good photo of the Ackley Covered Bridge. More than 100 men helped build this bridge in 1832 on Wheeling Creek near West Finley, Pennsylvania. I've always loved walking over this bridge for some reason and then sitting and watching the ducks on the pond beneath it.

The Suwanee Riverboat is a small version of the steamboats that ran up and down the Mississippi River. During the summer you can take a ride on the riverboat and they often have a banjo player on board for some added entertainment. I always feel like I'm back in the day of Mark Twain.

 Henry Ford’s wife, Clara, liked the style of old-fashioned “knot” gardens. Clara was a member of the Dearborn Garden Club and the creation of this garden in 1938 was one of the few projects Mrs. Ford oversaw at Greenfield Village. The garden is just outside the doors of the Martha-Mary Chapel and if you were to put all the separate pieces of the garden together it would create a large heart.

There are several farms at Greenfield Village too, and my favorite is the Firestone Farm where tiremaker Harvey Firestone grew up. One of the attractions of the farm are the Merino sheep, which were bred with lots of skin folds to increase the yield of wool per animal. Those folds made it harder to sheer the sheep however, which is why those folds were eventually bred out to increase productivity. The Merino sheep at the Firestone Farm are from stock that retained their extra skin folds.

There are a lot of other sights to see at Greenfield Village too. You can visit the Menlo Park complex where Thomas Edison conducted all of his experiments and visit the home and shop of the Wright Brothers. There is a huge railroad roundhouse where you can see engineers working on engines and an industrial park where you can see glass blowers, potters, saw mills, and grist mills. There is so much to see and do that I never tire of going back for a visit and exploring the past.