Showing posts with label new england. Show all posts
Showing posts with label new england. Show all posts

Wednesday, June 24, 2009

American Precision Museum, Windsor, Vermont

In Windsor, Vermont, of all places... a small town on the banks of the Connecticut River on Highway 5 North, is one of the most astonishing museums I have ever seen : The American Precision Museum. This is surely the most complete collection of machine tools in America (and probably the world) covering manufacturing and metal working techniques from the early 18oo's to the era of mass production.

The current exhibition is just a small part of the pieces in the collection, put together by a former curator of the Smithsonian Museum. The museum itself is housed in a building that was an armory during the Civil War.

I was allowed to enter the basement of the building, where the water-wheels operated. The pictures here are of the basement, a place more astonishing than the museum itself...






Vermont, Green Mountains

Last weekend we made a trip to the Green Mountains in Vermont. The initial idea was just a day trip from Boston, but it became a whole weekend. We found a place to stay in Chester (the Hugging Bear Inn) and visited Brattleboro, Hapgood Pond and the Griffith/Baker Trail (photos below). Driving Highways 5 and 12 on both sides of the Connecticut River was wonderful.