Schroeder Saddletree Factory Museum

The Museum includes the factory wood working shop, Blacksmith shop, assembly shop, and the Schroeder home. The wood working shop was built in 1878, by 1889 steam powered machinery was introduced. The Blacksmith shop was added in the 1890s. The old home has been made into a museum for the factory with the front parlor restored to showcase an average 1890s middle class family's parlor. The factory operated from 1878 to 1972 (operating on an "as needed" basis in the latter years).

Starting in 1916 the factory shifted to start producing other products to supplement the decreasing sale of saddletrees, starting with cloth work gloves. From the 1920s to the 1940s the Schroeders produced wooded stirrups, in the 1930s they made metal-reinforced wooden hames, wooden lawn furniture in the 1920s and 30's, and between the years of 1935 and 1940 they produced 1.8 million clothespins. Examples of these products and their advertising, packaging, and manufacturing are showcased in the museum. 

"The Schroeder Saddletree Factory Museum" pamphlet available through Historic Madison Inc.