Detroit, Toledo, and Milwaukee Roundhouse, Greenfield Village, Dearborn

Greenfield Village, the outdoor museum partner of the Henry Ford Museum in Dearborn, Michigan, opened its Detroit, Toledo, and Milwaukee Railroad (DT&M) roundhouse in mid-June 2000. This is a replication of a roundhouse built in 1884 but equipped as it might have been around 1915. The exhibit serves to educate and inform visitors about steam locomotive maintenance and repairs through interpretive displays and tours and by allowing them to observe repairs in progress. The roundhouse also gives Greenfield Village a place to refurbish its fleet of steam locomotives. All of the maintenance and repairs on the museum's locomotives will soon be done in the roundhouse, allowing visitors to see this work "up close and personal."

The roots of this project extend back to 1975, when Greenfield Village first operated vintage locomotives for visitors on a three-mile circular route. Discussions about building an operating roundhouse in the village began as early as 1983. In 1988 the museum installed the turntable that now serves the roundhouse. The Detroit Bridge and Iron Works built the hand-operated device in 1901 for the Pere Marquette Railroad roundhouse in Petoskey, Michigan. When I visited the DT&M roundhouse in late September 2000, during the museum's "Railroad Days" event, children were encouraged to rotate the turntable and align it with the tracks going into the stalls.

Reconstruction of the roundhouse began in July 1999; it opened officially on 10 June 2000. The total cost of the project was approximately $3.5 million, of which nearly a million dollars came in the form of an Intermodal Surface Transportation Efficiency Act grant through the Michigan Department of Transportation. The rest of the funding came from the successful capital campaign recently concluded by the museum.

The roundhouse (fig. 1), which not only houses the exhibit but is also a significant exhibit in its own right, is an almost-complete reconstruction of a six-stall repair shed built in nearby Marshall, Michigan, in 1884 for the Michigan and Ohio Railroad. Five railroad companies used the facility over the years, including the Michigan Central Railroad (1905-30). Marshall residents have called this building the Detroit, Toledo, and Milwaukee roundhouse, although that railroad owned it only from 1899 to 1905. Their deep-felt hatred of the monopolistic Michigan Central explains the name choice. The roundhouse served as a locomotive repair shop until 1930 and then as a foundry until the 1960s. Its last occupant ran a junk business.

The building was literally falling down when the museum staff created measured drawings of the remains in 1991. The only parts of the original building salvaged and reused in the reconstruction were five cast-iron columns that supported the doors to the six stalls, eighteen cast-iron windowsills, and parts of five roof trusses. The builders faithfully duplicated the original brick masonry work, including the Victorian detailing, using new bricks that matched the color of the originals.

This is not to suggest that the roundhouse at Greenfield Village is a totally accurate reproduction of the original. Authentic-looking "fake slate" made from recycled rubber has replaced the original slate roof. The weight savings realized with the new material allowed the use of the original framing system without additional structural supports. The floors, originally dirt or perhaps wooden paving blocks, are now concrete. One substantial change to the original roundhouse was the elimination of most of the "back shed," which in 1884 would have included a machine shop and several forges. Also missing is the powerhouse that would have housed the steam engine (with boilers) used to power all the machinery in the roundhouse. Space and cost considerations played a part in the decision to downsize (to 13,500 square feet). However, once the planners decided to recreate the roundhouse after electrification (circa 1915), having a powerhouse and steam engine were no longer essential. Overall, the recreation is authentic and credible.

The...