Building a Blacksmith Shop

[OldAgIron]

We are going to start building (recreating) a blacksmith shop on our show grounds in Sherrill Iowa. Does anyone have any pics of the exterior of some shops. I would like to see what some different ones looked like before we start.
thanks mike

[Tom Cwach]

If you go to Google on the top tool bar click on images and search ,blacksmith, a lot of interior photos and some outside ones.

[Brenda S]

Here are a couple of pictures of my husband's grandfather's blacksmith shop in Sudlersville, Maryland about 1900. The signs are for Buckeye Mowers and Binders and Lion Coffee. His grandfather is the one shoeing the horse. Notice the man at the right in picture #1 shooing flies with the horsetail on a stick.
Brenda S

[Brenda S]

Here's a post card of the blacksmith and carriage shop at Melitota, Maryland about 1900. You can see the wheels leaning against the building and a buggy with no wheels at the right. Blacksmith shops probably were different designs in different areas of the country. You have to take into consideration the summer heat and doors for spectators to view the blacksmith shop at a show. Hope this helps.
Brenda S

[Jeff Smith]

This is a neat blacksmith shop in Marion County, WV at Prickett's Fort. It was built to be in the correct period as the fort.

Jeff Smith

[Joel Sanderson]

I encourage you to have at least a short line shaft in your blacksmith shop. They were very common for blacksmiths to have, yet they rarely are represented in museum settings, perpetuating the myth that "everything was done by hand."

There were several power hammer manufacturers in Iowa: the Helva Hard Hitter (Dubuque, 1908), the Hawkeye (Tama, 1903), the Boss (Dubuque, 1903), the Vulcan (Montezuma, 1903), the Star (Waterloo, 1911). I'm sure there were many more than that, and there were others of earlier manufacture. It would be neat if you could find one made in Iowa from the period you are representing in your shop.