The January fire at the Sarah Jordan Boarding House . . .

If you haven’t made it over to The Henry Ford yet this summer, there is still plenty of time to take in a visit to this national gem located right here in the City of Dearborn.

If you take a walk through Greenfield Village, visitors will also notice that the Sarah Jordan Boarding House has been restored to its original condition since the building was damaged by fire in January.

Visitors will be hard-pressed to notice any changes to the circa-1870 duplex. The conservation effort has returned the 10 rooms to their original condition.

The Sarah Jordan Boarding House was home to many of Thomas A. Edison’s unmarried employees in Menlo Park, N.J. in the late 1870s and early 1880s. It was one of the earliest buildings brought to Greenfield Village.

. . . The Sarah Jordan Boarding House in August, restored to its original condition.

“As fires go, we were pretty lucky,”  Mary Fahey, chief conservator at The Henry Ford says on The Henry Ford web. The fire had been burning for only about 20 minutes when it was reported, and Dearborn firefighters arrived quickly to extinguish it.

In some areas of the home, damage was minimal and most of the furnishings inside the house survived the fire, Jeanine Miller, The Henry Ford’s curator of domestic life, says on the museum’s website. The Sarah Jordan Boarding House contains 806 artifacts. Of those, 33 have been replaced since the fire.

Now a small number of small artifacts — such as hair brushes, a doll and some linens — have been replaced. The wallpaper patterns in Sarah Jordan’s parlor on the main floor and in the north bedroom upstairs had to be changed. As for large items, a different table sits in the boarders’ parlor on the main floor, a new dresser and bed furnish the north bedroom upstairs and a different bed is in the south bedroom upstairs. The large items that replaced those damaged in the fire are all from The Henry Ford’s collection.

Below is a video that captures a portion of the restoration that took place at the house paid for by the company that did some of the work. You can view the video full screen by pressing the tab at the lower right of the video box.

For more information about The Henry Ford or to order tickets, click HERE.