The E Journey: Free Tour Month

September was free tour month for all the historic sites in Muskegon. I jumped on that one.

I kept the calendar and even roped another family into it with us on one day!

The first day, we toured the fire barn. It shows the history of how the Hackley and Hume families paid for the barn, the salaries of the men, and the equipment because they owned one of the lumber mills and didn't want their business burning down. There were over 20 lumber mills along Muskegon Lake at one point. We even took part in a bucket brigade and put out a fire. Okay - it was a red bucket in the grass, but the kids got the idea. The next week, I took the kids to the house right next to the fire barn, known as the Scolnik house. It portrays life as it was in Muskegon during the depression. I LOVED this house. It was like walking into different rooms of my grandpa and grandma Verbrugge's house. The house had been renovated during the depression so the upstairs could be one apartment and the main level was another. That way two families could live in the one home. Kids slept two to a bed on roll ups in the living room next to grandma on the couch and the baby slept in the closet.

Fire Barn and Scolnik House

Maria at the player piano, my grandma's actually worked, though

My grandparents had a bed and dresser very similar to this, and the sewing machine, plus colored quilts

They even kept the piano rolls in the bedroom closet, just like gpa and gma

The old wringer wash machine and behind Anika were big crocks

The next week we hit the Hackley and Hume homes. The first time we went, we took a family from school with us and we played croquet on the lawn in between the two homes. The other mom looked through the home, I stayed outside and played croquet. That day, Anika had stayed home from school - first round of strep throat already done for the year! When we got home, we set up our own croquet set, and we have played a few times since then.
We went back a few days later as a family to get the tour. Hackley was the owner of the lumber mill and Hume was his accountant. The homes are GORGEOUS. The building set back and in between the two homes was their stable. Each home had their own driver and carriage. The carriage would pull up next to the house and the people inside would get out. There is a railing there now, but very cool back in the day, I'm sure. Brandon took a picture of every room. Not sure I'm keeping those, but it was a cool tour. You tour all three buildings and it takes a little over an hour. I thought we were only going to tour one building at a time for about 20 -30 minutes (I figured we would go back three times to cover them all) so the kids didn't think it was as great as I did, but they survived.