Friday, October 14, 2016

Amazing Greenfield Village Dearborn, Michigan

#greenfieldvillage
Greenfield Village is a living history museum. You will feel as if you have entered a time machine that can take you back to 17th century New England or 16th century England. Every area of the village has something different to offer.

You can purchase a ticket for the village in combination with a ticket for the Henry Ford Museum. If you do this you will only pay the parking fee once, so a good idea. Once you get into the village you need to decide if you want to use their transportation system. If you do, a day pass is $10, with this you get a bracelet and you can ride the train, the omnibus, the bus, the Model T and the carousel as many times as you want.

#greenfieldvillage

The train takes 45 minutes to make a trip around the outside perimeter of the village. There are three stations including the station near the gate. You get a running commentary and all the important points in the village are pointed out. You can get off where you would like or just take one round to get acquainted with everything.



You can pick up the Omnibus near the gate as well and take it to Main Street or down to the Porches and Parlors area. If you take it down Main Street you might want to stop at one of the restaurants for lunch. There is a modern Cafeteria and a Historic Stage Stop. Both offer good food and service.

Porches and Parlors

The depth of the collections in this section is unbelievable. Would you like to stand in the courthouse where Abe Lincoln tried some of his early cases? How about George Washington Carver's Cabin? The Martha Mary Chapel has a bell that was made in the Paul Revere Foundry. Have you ever wondered what the inside of a slaves cabin looked like? Wonder no more, the Hermitage Slave Quarters are located in Greenfield Village.



Noah Webster's home from New Haven, CT, Robert Frosts House,  a Cotswold's Cottage from England, the Daggett Farmhouse and the oldest windmill in the United States are all located on these very scenic streets. It truly is like a walk into history.



If these were the only things here it would be amazing but how about visiting the Wright Brothers workshop. See where they came up with the idea for their aircraft. You can also visit the Wright family home.


The Henry Ford family farmhouse, the schoolhouse that Henry attended and the home of his favorite teacher are all here as well as is the Firestone family farm. The depth of the collection is unbelievable.

During the off-season, there are craftspersons working in the village, also are docents in many buildings but no activities except on the weekends.



The carousel is a gem with a frog as one of the animals and that is quite rare. The Model T has to be taken from the Model T loading dock. It is quite a still be to tooling through the village in a vintage car. If you are a train aficionado there is a Roundhouse here, one of only twenty still in existence in the United States.

A visit to Greenfield Village can certainly be a multi-day affair, there is so much to see and do. Without a doubt, if I could only recommend one place in the United States to visit, this would be it, If you live in the area a membership would certainly be a great idea. On the way out be sure to stop by the gift shop, it is large and filled with interesting items, some actually made within the village.

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