Blacksmith Shop

Blacksmith Shop. . , What if you could not go online or to the store to buy tools and appliances? , , Local craftspeople kept communities functioning with their custom handiwork. The blacksmith was especially vital to people settling in the Lisle area during the 1800s. The blacksmith provided the nails and hinges to build homes as well as making decorative items or practical items such as wagon wheels. , , The Lisle area had many Blacksmiths. The first shop was started by the Hatch brothers in 1833. There was a blacksmith shop along Southwest Plank Road, close to the Beaubien Tavern in 1850s. The last was Long's Blacksmith Shop that started in 1890. The need for blacksmithing declined in the 1930s and it became Long's Garage for repairing and welding. The museum's blacksmith shop has a massive double firepot stone hearth (forge). One of the large bellows used to make the forge hotter is from yet another blacksmith shop, Haumesser Blacksmith Shop, which operated in the 1800s. Lisle Heritage Society members designed the barn to be a working blacksmith and wood-turning shop. The structure is a timber frame construction with wood pegged mortises and tenons from three different barns. , , If you look closely inside and outside during a museum tour, you can see the objects hand-forged by our own blacksmiths.