June 22, 2008

June 22, 2008

Just west of Detroit is Dearborn, MI and the site of Henry Ford’s Greenfield Village. You can spend all day here and we did. It is the late 19th century version of Virginia’s Williamsburg. Opened in 1929, this huge complex contains an eclectic collection of buildings that inspired or merely interested Ford. Aiming for authenticity, he bought the actual buildings and their entire contents and moved them to this sprawling complex. Greenfield contains everything from his early home, his jobsite as Chief Engineer of an electricity generating plant, Edison’s Menlo Park laboratory, the Wright Brothers home and bike shop, homes from famous men of his day, to dozens of buildings from across the nation that represent Americana at the turn of the century.

Like Williamsburg the whole complex is teaming with very knowledgeable docents in period costume, working at crafts. I now know more than I ever wanted to about weaving machines! All the while we are surrounded by the sights and sounds of early industrial America, coal burning steam locomotives, horse drawn carriages, bicycles, and lots of Model T’s. (Model T’s are actually very quiet!) It really is the Disneyland version though. In the real one we would have been walking down dirt roads, stepping over smelly horse manure, while coughing from the thick haze of coal fires and tired from working six long days a week. Greenfield Village is a testament to how far we have come and how different life was only a hundred years ago.