When Barbara Harding and her husband Rusty bought the old blacksmith shop that sat on the side of Route 30 in Cornwall in the 1990s, they decided to learn the craft.

Around that time, a passerby might have seen a plume of smoke coming from the shop's chimney. The plaque identifying its National Register of Historic Places status may have even piqued their interest enough to stop by. If Rusty was inside, he’d open the doors and invite them in.

“It was really exciting for me, anyways, to drive by and see the smoke coming up out of the chimney, knowing that he was in there working, and the smells and the pounding, and seeing the fire in the hearth was just, I don't know, it's just really exhilarating, because you're stepping back in history,” Harding said.

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