Soule' Steam Museum

Discover Industrial Heritage as you experience the preserved industrial factory setting at historic Soulé Steam Feed Works. It appears that workers walked away from the job right after World War II and never returned. This Museum is not a collection of items, but a real factory where time stopped. The remaining artifacts reveal interesting, obsolete manufacturing processes from a bygone era. Displays feature many stories about the Soulé company, plus the inventors and industrial producers who made Meridian a key player in the American Industrial Revolution (1870-1914). Step back in time and experience how people worked in the early 20th century. Soulé Steam Feed Works is the last remaining steam engine factory in the United States and offers a glimpse of how hard people worked. Visit the 1907 belt-driven machine shop that looks much as it did prior to World War II and the foundry, complete with cupola furnace, core-making department, and pattern shop. The Soulé office contains most of the original furnishings dating from the 1930s. The indoor forge provided the blacksmith with a modern means of forging iron into shapes needed at the factory. Learn about the laundrymen, patternmakers, journeyman machinists, and other workers that built the products sold around the world. Discover how inventor and industrialist George W. Soule and other talented individuals contributed to the development of industry in Meridian and the Deep South. See examples of Soulé steam engines, patents, and other products he designed and manufactured. Learn what natural resources from the Meridian area were used to build the great industrial cities of the northern United States. See examples of steam engines that powered industry during this period and learn how steam power was important in building the nation. See the most complex machine ever designed and built in the late 1800s and learn about the revolution it caused in publishing at the Gower Print Shop.