Buildings Tour
Introduction
Farm families could often buy the buildings straight from the Sears, Roebuck and Co. catalogs. The men would build the desired buildings and the women would be able to decorate them as they wished. Picking out the buildings for the farmstead required an idea of what kind of work they wanted to do so they could order all the buildings they needed and could afford.
Take a tour of our farm to see what buildings were chosen for this farmstead!
Explore
Tenant House
The I. Floyd Garrott Tenant House is an original Sears, Roebuck & Co. house in The Hampton style. It was built in 1921, by Charles and May Stubel as a rental house and would have cost $1,681. The house was moved from North 9th Street to The Farm in 2004.
The house includes 6 rooms- a living room, dining room, kitchen and 3 bedrooms, as well as a bathroom and a back entry room. The house has a total of 900 square feet not including the basement which would have been used for storage, laundry, and the furnace.
Gibson Farmhouse
Sears, Roebuck & Company was founded in 1893, in Chicago. They had catalogs where people could mail order almost anything imaginable such as clothing, books, tools, farm equipment, and even houses! In 1924, the first retail store had opened up and by 1929, there were 300 retail stores across the country.
The Gibson Farmhouse is a replica of one of the many houses you could buy from Sears, Roebuck & Co. All of the pieces and materials you would need to build the house would come on railcars. A house this size probably needed about 3 full railcars! Oftentimes, neighbors would come together and host building parties to build the houses.
The Gibson Farmhouse is a replica of the Hillrose and was built in 2000. The Hillrose would have cost the buyer a total of $3,141. It included 9 rooms and a bath. The first floor included a library, living room, dining room, bedroom, kitchen, washroom, and pantry. The first floor would have also had a shed connected to the back but because the replica needed to include an elevator for accessibility reasons, some alterations in the floorplan were made. The second floor included 4 bedrooms and a bathroom. The Hillrose would have had a basement that had concrete floors and 7 foot tall ceilings.
Machine Shed
Corn Crib
Barn
Milkhouse
Windmill
Blacksmith Shop
Blacksmith shop have been used for centuries to make and mend whatever tools and equipment that was needed for the farm. These tools might include shovels or other gardening tools. People often think that blacksmiths only make swords, knives, and horseshoes which is not the case.
The blacksmithing process is a long and hard process. Because of lack of electricity during this time, all machinery was cranked by hand. A blacksmith hand cranked a blower that pushes air up through the fire to get it hot enough to burn the steel which is about 3000 degrees Fahrenheit. Part of the reason the blacksmith shop was so dark is so the blacksmiths could see when the steel was heated (when it glows red).
Various tools, dies, and anvils were used to shape and repair the steel. Hand crank drills were also used to help with the process. During the process of heating and shaping the metal, borax was commonly used as a welding agent. A slack tub filled with water was used to temper or cool the iron. The final product was finished with linseed oil to give a black look to the steel.