Greenfield Village, covering 90 acres, began as Henry Ford’s remarkable vision of a vast outdoor museum filled with buildings of historic significance.  Beginning in 1927, he hired staff to begin the process of acquiring, disassembling, and painstakingly reassembling dozens of houses, shops, restaurants, and craftworks locations to build this re-creation of America’s past.  Henry was adamant about authenticity and demanded painstaking attention to the details of reconstruction.  In fact, on more than one occasion, he brought the original owner of the buildings to Greenfield Village to make sure the reconstruction was exactly as it had been originally.  Today, the Village includes dozens of original buildings such as working farms, a cider mill, gristmill, weaving and pottery shops, sawmills, a printing office, carding mill, glass shop, machine shop, railroad and round house, riverboat, jewelry store, millinery shop, and many others.  There are a few buildings that are replicas, rather than originals, but this point is always clear.  Henry would only have it that way.

Henry was born on a farm near Detroit.  The house in which he was born is at Greenfield Village.  At age 16, he left home, moving to the city to work in a machine shop.  In 1893, he went to work for the Thomas Edison Company as chief engineer.  He built his first car in 1896, the Quadricycle, in the garage of the rented house in which he lived.  It had a two-cylinder four horsepower engine and weighed 500 pounds.  Edison encouraged him to continue to pursue this new invention and, in 1903 (after two other unsuccessful attempts), he opened the Ford Motor Company plant on Mack Avenue.  The building in Greenfield Village is a replica, only 1/4 the size of the original.  Here they manufactured about 1,500 cars a year and were so successful that Henry soon had to open the larger Highland plant.  And the rest, they say, is history.

The Wright Brothers’ original bicycle shop, along with the original machine shop where they built the Kitty Hawk, was moved to the village from Dayton, Ohio.  Ford also purchased the Wright Brothers’ childhood home and had it moved here.

The house where the first H. J. Heinz products were created, in Sharpsburg, Pennsylvania, is also here.  Did you know that Heinz’s first product was horseradish? Robert Frost’s home, in which he wrote much of his poetry, is here, along with Noah Webster’s home.  For those who don’t know . . . Noah singlehandedly wrote the first dictionary of the American language, giving the words American spellings,  pronunciations, and definitions, rather than British.  And in 1828, he compiled the last dictionary that would be written by one person.  It contained 70,000 words.  He also wrote spelling and reading textbooks that were used in American schools for many years.   Additionally, Ford acquired the original childhood homes of Thomas Edison, William Holmes McGuffey, and George Washington Carver and had them moved here.  Amazing. 

The village also contains a Cotswald cottage, built in Gloucestershire, England in the early 1600's, along with a Worchestershire, England blacksmith’s shop from that era.

And there’s the oldest windmill in the United States, the Farris Windmill, built in the mid-1600's in Cape Cod, Massachusetts, to grind corn.  And the Ackley covered bridge, built in 1832, in Pennsylvania. 

Henry and Thomas Edison became lifelong friends.  Both had winter homes in Fort Myers, Florida.  In 1885, Edison had a laboratory built in Fort Myers so he could continue his work while there.  The original Fort Myers laboratory is in Greenfield Village, along with a replica of the main Menlo Park, New Jersey laboratory (about 20% of the building is original).  When the Menlo Park laboratory was completed, Ford brought Edison back for a celebration of 50 years of electricity.  Around 80 years of age, Edison sat in a chair while he re-enacted the first lighting of the electric bulb.  Ford ordered that the chair be nailed to the floor in the exact location where Edison had sat and it remains so today.  Edison died two years later.

The Edison complex also includes a machine shop, an office building, an illuminating gas plant, a glass-blowing plant, and Edison’s sister-in-law’s boarding house which housed Menlo Park employees.  The boarding house was one of the first houses wired for electricity.  Menlo Park, New Jersey is now called Edison, New Jersey.

We had a delightful lunch at the Eagle Tavern, built in 1831 in Clinton, Michigan.  Everything was as it would have been in 1831 including the menu, the attire of the waitresses, the communal seating with other travelers, and the candlelit tables (hard on the eyes of old folks!).  The only difference was the price . . . and the fact that they do take credit cards.  We also enjoyed a driving tour of the Village in a 1921 Model T Ford.

Thursday morning, we boarded a bus for the 9:30 Ford Rouge Factory Tour.  It was 49 degrees with a projected high of 58.  The tour began with a video presentation on the history of the Rouge River plant and a multi-sensory presentation on how an automobile is built.  We learned that construction on the plant began in 1917 on 1,100 acres on the Rouge River.  It took ten years to build it.  Ford was a genius and the father of the modern assembly line.  The Rouge was a vertically integrated facility, meaning that raw materials were brought in for every component of the automobile that would be manufactured here. They used those raw materials to create everything they needed to build a car including steel, glass, tires, etc.  It was said that from the time the raw materials arrived at the plant, it took only 72 hours for a new Model T to roll off the assembly line.  By 1934, there were 100,000 workers employed here. 

Today, the plant manufactures F150 Ford trucks exclusively and can produce 60 vehicles per hour on its 4½ mile-long assembly line.  The tour included a trip to the observation deck and the final assembly plant.  Six viewing platforms, positioned above the assembly line, allowed for a bird’s eye view of the assembly process.  In the Legacy Gallery following the tour, we saw a 1927 Model A Ford, a 1932 Ford V8, a 1949 Ford (redesigned and reintroduced after World War II), a Thunderbird, a Mustang, and a Ford F150 truck, all built at the Rouge.

Following the tour and the bus trip back, we had lunch at the museum’s Michigan Cafe, then began our tour of the Henry Ford Museum.  The museum began as one man’s vision to document the genius of ordinary people by recognizing and preserving the objects they used in the course of their everyday lives.  It grew to become one of the largest collections of its kind - a remarkable place that brings American ideas and innovations to life.  The museum covers nine acres - it is huge.  It is divided into a dozen or so exhibits centered around themes.  We began with the exhibits on horse-drawn vehicles and railroads, then moved on to trucks, race cars and the “Automobile in American Life”.

It is amazing to see some of the items that have been preserved.  For example, there is a Ross Chariot, said to be one of the few remaining original horse-drawn carriages from the 1700's.  It is in excellent condition with all of its original parts.  They also have a 1910 Stanley Steamer car, sold new for $750.  There was a large collection of fire trucks. 

The train exhibit contained all kinds of train engines and cars including the now extinct caboose and parlor cars.  The crown jewel was the 1941 Lima Allegheny locomotive, 125 feet in length, 11 feet wide, weighing 600 tons.  It includes an 8,000 horsepower boiler, the largest ever installed in an engine.  We then moved through the truck and race car exhibits and into the “Automobile in American Life” exhibit. 

Most interesting was a collection of early camping vehicles.  We learned that the first true travel trailer was produced in 1929 by the Covered Wagon Company of Mt. Clemmons, Michigan.  Henry Ford loved to camp with his friends and one of the travel trailers in the exhibit was used by Henry, then given to Charles Lindbergh who used it for years then restored it and donated it to the museum.  The Lindbergh’s recorded all their destinations and travel dates on the bottom of one of the camper drawers. The drawer is now on display, providing a fascinating view into Lindy’s life.

They also had an 18-foot 1949 Airstream trailer with a series of Burma Shave signs by it reading “With this vale - of toil and sin - your head grows bald - but not your chin - Burma Shave”.  For those who are too young to remember, Burma Shave (shaving cream) signs began appearing on roadways in 1929 and flourished until the 1960's.  There were many different versions of them and it was always fun to read them.

They even have Charles Kuralt’s original RV used in his “On the Road with Charles Kuralt” series.  It occurred to me how much I loved Kuralt’s reports on American life - the quirky and the fascinating.  Maybe that’s where my road itch began!  I certainly identified with a quote by Walt Whitman that was displayed in this exhibit: “Oh, public road - you express me better than I can express myself.”

The RV exhibit migrated into a section on early cabins and motor hotels and the importance of the highway in the growth of America.  They had an original furnished cabin on display along with a furnished original Holiday Inn room.  They also had a drive-in movie with a T-bird, Edsel, and Studebaker in the front row next to the speakers, reminiscent of growing up in the 50's.  And they had a full-blown Texaco gas station, immacutely recreated with a service bay, a water-filled Coke cooler and gas pumps.

They also had an original 1946 diner, built in Worchestershire, Massachusetts.  There were a total of 600 built and, when purchased, they could be transported on a flatbed truck and set up fully equipped and ready for business. 

There were dozens of automobiles on display including several Presidential limousines.  A 1939 Lincoln convertible, dubbed the “Sunshine Special”, was used by Franklin D. Roosevelt and Harry Truman.  It accompanied Roosevelt to diplomatic meetings in Yalta, Teheran, Casablanca and Malta.  A 1950 Lincoln on display was used by Truman, Eisenhower, and Kennedy.  It had a unique clear bubble roof on it to make the President visible to all his constituents in all kinds of weather.  The 1961 Lincoln, in which John F. Kennedy was riding when he was assassinated, is also there.  It was remodeled in 1964 and a hard top was added (it was a convertible when Kennedy was killed in it), reversing the trend to make Presidents more visible.  The remodel also included a new engine, titanium plating, bullet-proof glass, and a new communications system.  A 1972 Lincoln, called the Reagan car, was used by Nixon, Ford, Carter and Reagan.  It provided refuge for both Ford and Reagan when attempts were made on their lives.

Next was the airplane exhibit.  They have the original 1939 Sikorsky helicopter, the first helicopter to fly.  They have the 1928 Ford Trimotor plane in which Admiral Byrd made the first flight over the South Pole as well as the Fokker Byrd flew on his North Pole exhibition (there is controversy over whether he actually made it to the North Pole).  They had a full size DC-3 prop plane which had logged 12 million miles and worn out 139 motors and 25,000 spark plugs.  They had replicas of Lindbergh’s plane, the Kitty Hawk, and Amelia Earhart’s plane.  You just can’t believe the size of this place!  It was now 5:00 and we were worn out so we called it a day.  So much stuff - so little time!!!

Friday morning, we began with the Made in America: Power exhibit where we saw lots of old machinery used during the Industrial Revolution.  An early light bulb machine was featured that could make 600 bulbs a minute - WOW!  Only 15 of these machines could make all the light bulbs for the world in the 1970's. 

There was a huge section on steam power, turbines, and electric generators.  Among the items on display was the oldest surviving steam engine in the world, a 20 horsepower Newcomen, circa 1760.  Thomas Newcomen designed the first steam engine around 1710 to pump water out of deep mines in England.  Before long, it was being used to supply water to canals and cities and, by the 1780's, it was powering factories - the first modern power source.

There is an extensive display of early guns, including rifles, shotguns and pistols from a number of manufacturers.  There’s also an extensive display of tomahawks and knives.

At the entrance to the “With Liberty and Justice for All” exhibit, is this quote: “The ideal of freedom is an innovative notion that can be found at the heart of America.  This ideal is embodied in the Declaration of Independence and protected in the Constitution.  Its greatest power lies in where it lives - in the hearts and minds of the American people.”

This exhibit highlights the struggle for freedom in our country and notes that it has always been the product of social movements and struggles.  Four such movements, when America’s freedom was tested, contested, and ultimately redefined, are featured in this exhibit: American independence, the Civil War, the vote for women, and civil rights.  Jerry found it interesting that in the 1800's, American women had fewer rights than a male inmate in an insane asylum.  They could not vote, serve on a jury, testify in court, hold public office, attend college or practice law.  If they were married, they could not sign a contract, own or inherit property, keep or invest their own earnings or have automatic rights to the children.  They were expected to center their lives around family and home and obey husbands in all matters.  They were not to voice strong opinions in public and were to behave in a refined way.  But Alice Paul and Carrie Chapman Catt led the way to change that and, in 1919, women got the right to vote!  We’ve come a long way in 87 years, baby!

One of the interesting items in this exhibit was the actual bus that Rosa Parks was riding when she refused to give up her seat to a white man.  This action by a quiet seamstress in Birmingham sparked the Civil Rights Movement.

The next exhibit focused on manufacturing in America and included dozens of items such as assembly line tools, tools that made tools, tools that increased productivity, tools that made screws, milling machines, crankshafts, gears, drill presses - it went on and on!

The “Fully Furnished” exhibit featured examples of many different furniture styles, popular through the years.  Next, we toured the prototype for the Dymaxion House, conceived in 1946 as a new way of living.  It was a prefabricated round house made of aircraft aluminum by Beech Aircraft in Wichita, Kansas.  It had naugahyde walls, plexiglas windows and plastic window screens that wouldn’t rust.  It offered 1,017 square feet of living space and would be marketed to soldiers back from the war looking to buy a new house.  The house would be shipped to the new buyer and, in two days, the ten installers would have the house constructed.  Only two were ever built even though over 3,700 people made deposits to buy one.  The original designer had conflicts with his investors and couldn’t raise the $2 million dollars needed to finance the project so it was dropped.  A number of years later, one of the original investors traveled to Kansas and retrieved the house.  He and his family lived in it for a number of years, adding on to it as the family grew.  The family donated it to the museum in 1992.

Our final exhibit of the day, thank God, was “Your Place in Time” which provided a walk through the twentieth century, segregated by the generations of that century: The Progressive Generation (born between 1890-1919); the War Generation (1920-35); Eisenhower Generation (1936-45); Baby Boomers (1946-54); Generation X (1965-79). Each display featured items from that era along with new products and inventions that came along during that time.  We ended the day, and our time at “The Henry Ford”, exhausted but enriched.

Saturday, September 30, we awoke to rain falling on the roof.  It was hard to get out of bed but there were sights to be seen!  We were off to the Motown Museum in downtown Detroit.  We had visited the museum ten years ago but wanted to go back again before leaving the area. 

For those who are not Baby Boomers, Motown was the 1959 brainchild of Berry Gordy, Jr., a young African American songwriter who dreamed of starting his own record company.  The company was created, in this house at 2648 West Grand with a loan of $800 from the savings club of the Berry Gordy, Sr. family.  The name was chosen to reflect the Motor City.  By the end of their first decade, Motown was the largest independent manufacturer of single 45 rpm records in the world.  Artists under contract in the early days included Little Stevie Wonder, The Jackson Five, Gladys Knight & the Pips, Temptations, Aretha Franklin, Four Tops, The Supremes, Marvin Gaye & the Marvellettes, Little Anthony and the Imperials, The Monitors, Mary Wilson, Smokey Robinson and the Miracles, and others.  Gordy promoted record sales by “packaging” his stars and sending them on the Motortown Review, a concert tour of towns across America.  Not only did Gordy provide the stars with voice coaching; he also provided them with training in etiquette, showmanship, choreography, personal hygiene and many other areas to mold them into stars.  What resulted was an incredible “machine” that had a huge impact on music in America and on our culture.  For the first time in our history, Blacks and Whites were listening to the same music, going to the same concerts, and dancing on the same dance floors.  Berry Gordy’s music helped bridge the gap as teenagers reached across the aisle and barriers began to come down.  It was fun to see, once again, Studio A where it all began.

Tomorrow, we will work on our blog and, on Monday, we head toward Niagara Falls.

Bits of trivia from The Henry Ford: 

A song from 1915 noted that “You can’t afford to marry if you can’t afford a Ford.”

Colonel Sanders began selling chicken in the 1930's but he didn’t sell his first franchise until 1952 to a Salt Lake City restaurant.

The phrase “the real McCoy” was termed by a Black inventor, Elijah McCoy, who had over 50 patents for his products.  His standards for quality workmanship were so high that he coined the phrase to demand that his employees perform tasks as exactly as he would - the real McCoy.

Niagara Falls was the site of the first great hydroelectric project in the US in 1896, supplying electricity to Buffalo, New York - 26 miles away. 

Happy trails to you . . .  til we meet again!