Thank You, Marty!  Great reference.

On Wed, Oct 1, 2014 at 10:33 AM, Marty Pickands <[log in to unmask]>
wrote:

> David-
>
> My article on the Watts Blacksmith Shop Site is in NYS Museum Bulletin No.
> 513:
>
> http://www.nysm.nysed.gov/staffpubs/docs/20232.PDF
>
> We had the rare good fortune of having the entire shop within the APE and
> were able to identify all the major workstations and storage areas.
>
>
>
>
>
> >>> David W Babson <[log in to unmask]> 9/30/2014 3:49 PM >>>
> I have been asked to advise on a potential modification to a reconstructed
> building. As built c. 1995, this building depicts a mid-late 19th-century
> blacksmith shop as part of a boatyard on the Erie Canal, and it contains a
> working coal-fired forge for living history demonstrations. As built, a
> corner of the forge area includes a single-animal stall, interpreted as
> being a holding stall for canal horses or mules, waiting to be shoed. The
> stall is approximately 15 feet (4.5m) from the forge. With possible
> renovations coming up, the museum sponsoring this building is wondering if
> stalls within an active blacksmith shop were common, unusual, or never
> heard of. Opinions range from the stall in the forge room being a practical
> idea, to it being never done, because the horses and mules would have been
> agitated by the fire and noise of the forge, and would therefore have been
> hard to manage safely. The museum is trying to decide to keep the stall as
> is, or remove it to improve the historical character of the reconstructed
> building.
>
>
> Opinions and links to published references concerning this topic are
> welcome.
>
>
> Thanks,
>
>
> D. Babson.
>



-- 
Smoke Pfeiffer
Don't believe anything until
you hear the official denial !!!