The country’s only 19th-century saddletree factory is an hour outside Louisville. Take a peek
An hour away from downtown Louisville is a unique piece of American history. Built by Ben Schroeder as a small saddletree factory in 1878, the Madison, Indiana property is now known as the Schroeder Saddletree Factory Museum — and it is the country’s only restored 19th-century saddletree factory.
Packed with one-of-a-kind and vintage belt-powered woodworking machines, the site was once home to two generations of Schroeders. From 1878 to 1972, the family manufactured between 300,000 and 500,000 saddletrees for people in the U.S. and worldwide.
Today, the roughly one-acre property includes the Schroeders' former house-turned-museum, the woodworking shop, and the blacksmithing shop.
Home full of history
Historic Madison Foundation Inc. president and executive director John Staicer explained that saddletrees are the internal wooden frame of a saddle. As the bearing structure of the saddle, saddletrees bridged the withers and balanced the rider.
Staicer has a wealth of knowledge regarding saddletrees and the old Schroeder property, as he spent a decade conducting research and doing an above-ground archeology project with pieces of the past that were left behind. He and a team of experts restored the factory and family home between 1999 and 2002.
“We created a three-dimensional grid system so we could find something, identify it, mark it with its grid coordinates, and put it into storage,” Staicer explained.
After rebuilding the floor structure, carefully repairing the buildings to make them appear untouched, and installing a new electrical system, everything was put back in its original location.
“We (also) had a special machinist conservator who came up from Alabama and spent 18 months here in Madison restoring the machines,” Staicer added. “He did complete photography documentation … and took detailed measurements of where everything was, and then put it all back together.”
Among the machinery are some pieces of equipment that cannot be found anywhere else, such as the cantle disher, which was used to shape the rear part of each saddletree. Made to order by the Madison Machine Co. in 1928, it is the only one of its kind.
A place to live, work, and play
The old Schroeder abode is now home to displays of various family artifacts. This includes cans and other containers once filled with everything from beer and cigarettes to Epsom salt and Tums.
There are even a few black-and-white photographs, as well as evidence of other projects the family had taken on over the years. From 1916 onward, Staicer explained, the Schroeders experimented with making other products to supplement their income.
A sewing machine they used to make gloves during World War I sits in one room, while a basket of wooden pieces used for crafting clothespins is in another.
“They made over a million clothespins here in the factory,” Staicer said. “They also made hames for horse collars, (and) stirrups, too.”
Pieces of their home life can also be seen throughout the woodworking shop.
“They kept everything,” Staicer said while pointing out a pattern created out of repurposed cardboard. “They used a Cap’n Crunch box of cereal (from) 1965.”
Green before their time
There’s also a piece of cardboard from the Louisville Paper Company that was strategically placed to keep sawdust at bay in one part of the shop. Scrap pieces of wood were glued together and used for making new items whenever possible, and countless other pieces of various materials were found all over the property.
In the blacksmithing shop, both sides of the workbenches show obvious signs of wear, indicating that they were flipped at some point, essentially doubling their lifespan.
“They reduced what they needed by being very frugal,” Staicer said. “(There’s) scrap cardboard, scrap paper. We (also) found a couple hundred (TV dinner trays). They kept them because (they were made of) good, heavy-duty aluminum.”
The Schroeders incorporated a reduce-and-reuse mindset to operate their machinery, too. The waste sawdust was automatically piped away by a vacuum-like collection system, then sent through a chute and down a pipe into the boiler room. The sawdust was then burned with coal to create the steam for the steam engines, which generated electricity to operate the machines.
“The Schroeders started the green revolution right here,” Staicer exclaimed, “(and the property) is a part of not only Madison history but national history. … People didn’t have cars; they got around on horses, so this was integral to transportation in the 19th century.”
The Schroeder Saddletree Factory Museum is open for tours at 3 p.m. on Mondays, Fridays, and Saturdays through October. Admission is free for Historic Madison Foundation, Inc. members and $15 for non-members. Group tours can be arranged by calling 812-265-2967, or emailing [email protected]. Visit historicmadisoninc.com for more information.
Know a house that would make a great Home of the Week? Email writer Lennie Omalza at [email protected] or Lifestyle Editor Kathryn Gregory at [email protected].
nuts & bolts
Owner: Historic Madison Foundation, Inc., which is a nonprofit, historic preservation organization
Home: The house is a 5,500-square-foot, Victorian-style abode built in 1878 and remodeled through 1945.
Distinctive elements: This is the site of the only known, completely intact saddletree factory dating to the 19th century in the U.S.
Applause! Applause! Olentangy Restoration; Ratio Architects; John Bowie Associates Architects.
This article originally appeared on Louisville Courier Journal: Explore the Schroeder Saddletree Factory Museum in Madison Indiana
