he Wright home, like most of the buildings in Greenfield Village, is unpretentious. Orville was at a loss to understand why Henry Ford would want such an unremarkable structure, but once you're there, Ford's message is clear. The Wrights and all the other great innovators that Greenfield Village enshrines were just plain folks like you. Go thou and do likewise.

Outside, it looks like the two-story frame houses you find all over America in small towns and the older sections of cities � vaguely Victorian with a spacious front porch. When it was first built, the house had no porch, a guide tells you. Wilbur and Orville added that. If you come in the summertime, you can enjoy a little street theater on the porch. Two actors demonstrate how the brothers worked together to develop their aeronautical theories � they fought like cats and dogs. While I was there, the impersonators fumed and puffed at each other in a hot debate over propeller design. (Actually, these heated discussions usually took place over the dining room table, just after dinner. Orville would sit straight in his chair, arms folded, while Wilbur slouched down, leaning back against his shoulder blades.)

Inside, you find more evidence of the Wrights' craftsmanship � a solid cherry mantle and staircase, built by the brothers and decorated with bas-relief carvings by Wilbur. One of the rockers in the home � there are several � were also built by Wilbur and Orville for their ailing mother. Unfortunately, the guides aren't sure which one.

The house is surprisingly small inside, and the late Victorian bric-a-brac that's everywhere inside makes it seem even smaller. From the front porch, you step into the Wright's "receiving parlor," a common room in Victorian homes. The "entertaining parlor" � what we would call the living room � is to your left, at the front of the house. Down the hallway, past the cherry mantle, are a formal dining room and a small kitchen.

The upstairs is no longer open to the public. Unfortunately, Greenfield Village had to close it off because of the local fire codes. There's no suitable fire escape from the upstairs, and the museum chose not to install one as it would ruin the historic appearance of the home from the outside. However, the staff kindly let me upstairs for a brief time to take some photos to share with you. Upstairs, the house is laid out much the same as downstairs, with small bedrooms strung along a long hallway. A huge, high bed dominates each bedroom � Bishop Wright had a headboard about the size of Noah's Ark. The room in which Wilbur died displays his leather satchel on the floor next to a chest of drawers that he and Orville are thought to have built. There is no bathroom; 7 Hawthorne Street was equipped with "outdoor plumbing."

Out the back door is a tiny building, so small you first think it might be a playhouse or a garden shed. But this is the workroom where Orville and Wilbur began their printing business. Even after the brothers moved the business to more spacious quarters, they continued to use the shed as a darkroom. It was here that the famous photo of the December 17, 1903 flight was developed.

The Wright home at Greenfield Village.

Entering the gate to the front yard.

The view from the side porch, just before you enter the front door.

The tiny backyard of the Wright home.

The tiny utility building that the Wrights used for a print shop and a darkroom, among other things.

Looking at the side porch from the backyard.

The back of the Wright home.