Old World Wisconsin: Crossroads Village

These are the first of my favorite photos from Old World Wisconsin. This batch is from the "Crossroads Village", which the museum has created from a variety of buildings gathered from around Wisconsin. There are several interesting buildings right there. The first building most visitors see is a whitewashed church with a large stove placed right in the middle of the aisle. My father-in-law could have hung out in the blacksmith's shop all day long watching the docent make door hooks and nails if we hadn't pulled him out of there to look at other things, although I admit it was pretty interesting watching the guy use nothing but a hammer and anvil and his skill to turn a red-hot rod of steel into something useful. The washerwoman's stove shows some of the tools of her trade, like an iron and a ruffle-press. The middle-class family's parlor was calculated to impress visitors with a level of prosperity the family could barely afford to present (how little things have changed!) and while the decor seems a little bit busy and crowded to my eyes, we were assured that indeed, this was how they presented the room to guests and it was fashionable in the late 1860's. And there is also a shot of many of the docents in period dress headed to the village inn (which is, I presume, where they keep their regular clothes to change into when their shifts are done).