Extendedstay Detroit Dearborn

Dearborn

by Tom_Fields

"A Glimpse of the Past"

Dearborn offers a look at the Industrial Revolution in America's Midwest. The Henry Ford Museum has a great collection of Ford automobiles. Greenfield Village re-creates such historic places as Thomas Edison's Menlo Park laboratory, one of his early power stations, and a typical 19th century American town.

Greenfield Village ~ June 14, 2003

by truesunn

"Historical Homes & Workshops"

There are many historic buildings and workshops including Thomas Edison's workshop, Henry Ford's homes, The Wright Brothers Bicycle Workshop and Historic Farms and slave quarters!

All of the homes are furnished with accurately restored pieces of the era in which they were built and used. There are many historical items such as grocerys in the General Store, hats and clothing in a women's apparrel shop, and the buildings still contain their woodburning stoves and heaters!

Tour guides in historical costume grace each building with stories and information about each place.

"Suwanee Steamboat"

For $1.50, you can take a ride around the canal in an authentic paddle boat, which operated in Florida in the early 1900's! 600lbs of coal per day are shoveled into it's fires to keep the boat going!

"Curiousities..."

I found very many items at the Village curious. The picture to the right is a horse-drawn Hearse, which carried pine boxes from the church to the cemetary.

There were several of the farms that featured outhouses and crudely fashioned slave quarters. All of the homes were heated by wood or coal burning furnaces and wood burning stoves!

It is hard to imagine living the way people had even just 100 years ago.

"Educational Experiences"

In 5th Grade, I had the opportunity of attending a typical school day in the late 1800's at McGuffey Schoolhouse, shown at the right. Our class dressed in period costumes and wrote on slates with chalk. Instead of our usual textbooks, we read from elementary readers, which by today's standards would be at about a kindergarden to first grade level. Many children left school early in those days to help their parents work the farm, or learn their father's trade!

These educational field trips are still offered to this day! You can call the Village for further information.

"Historic Carousel"

The centerpiece of the park is a carousel, which was built beginning in 1913. All of the animals are at least 95 years old each, many of which still have their original paint jobs!

No two animals on the carousel are the same, and there are many unusual pieces including: a tiger, a lion, a deer, a pig, a frog, a seahorse, a zebra and a giraffe! Brittney rode a dalmation, and I rode the siamese cat next to her!

"Classic Cars..."

As I mentioned, there was a classic vehicle show going on this day. There were bicycles, cars from Model T's to 70's muscle and other motor vehicles. MANY nice Mustangs and Vettes to be seen. There was even a 1970's girls Schwinn bicycle identical to the one I had when I was younger, complete with banana seat!

Here is myself with a 1967 Vette. (Britt did a pretty nice job on the pic for a 4 year old!) Personally, I would like to own the semi-rare 1975 Stingray, red on black!