Inside the Old Schmidt Greenhouse

    Here are a couple of old photos showing the inside of the Schmidt Greenhouse.  That is my Uncle Bill in the flashy 1970’s plaid pants, cutting some lettuce.  Lettuce was grown, during in the winter.  The pipes you see running horizontally along the beds of lettuce, circulated hot water from a boiler, which heated the greenhouse during the winter.  Once all of the lettuce had been harvested and the seasons warmed, the greenhouse was planted with tomatoes, but unfortunately, I have no photos of them, not that you could see very far with all of the tall tomato plants. 

    The Schmidt Greenhouse was new technology when my Grandfather built it.  It was, I think, the first commercial greenhouse in Evansville, IN.

    When we were young, my cousin and I loved to play in the empty beds of the greenhouse with our toy trucks, building roads and making making hills and valleys.  One night we were allowed to “camp” and sleep inside the greenhouse.

    I remember one winter, the Schmidts lost a portion of their lettuce crop when a bad hail storm caused hailstones to crash through the greenhouse glass, splintering glass that showered down onto the lettuce, making it to dangerous to use, so the crop was lost.  

    The greenhouse was quite big, I estimate that there was about 16,000 sq. ft (1,500 sq. m.) under glass.  These photos can capture only a bit of the growing area.

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