The park’s blacksmith shop is one of the most popular stops on school field trips. Within its dark and smoke-tinged interior, children can watch as blacksmiths hammer out period-accurate items such as nails and hooks.
They come away with a better understanding of how these items were made in colonial times and the manual labor involved in producing them.
To protect the interior of the shop and the tools contained within it, the shingles on the building’s roof were recently replaced. Work was done by park maintenance employees and $3,000 in shingles was donated by Jessie and Donna Winslade, friends of the park’s blacksmith, Dana Osterman.
Money for additional materials needed to complete the roof, such as nails and extra wood, were donated by a member of the Friends of Washington Crossing board.
“It was great that everything came together to get this important job done before our fall programs and school field-trip season,” said Jennifer Martin, executive director of the Friends group. “Repairs to many of the other park buildings are scheduled to be completed as part of the state’s capital project. The blacksmith shop was not part of that project, so we were able to complete the work sooner.”
The blacksmith shop that visitors see today is a replica that was built in 1990. Taylorsville’s original blacksmith shop was constructed around 1830.