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    Amish Houses & Barns
    Amish Houses & Barns
    Amish Houses & Barns
    Ebook219 pages1 hour

    Amish Houses & Barns

    By Stephen Scott

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    About this ebook

              A study of three Amish homesteads: one in Lancaster County, Pennsylvania, one in Holmes County, Ohio, and one in LaGrange County, Indiana. Scott examines the history and cultural development of a typical Amish house and barn, one in each of the three largest Amish communities in North America. Home is the center of Amish life and most life events:birth, marriage, daily work and play, retirement, and even death happen there.           Stephen Scott explores the history and cultural development of three Amish homesteads, each of which has been occupied by the current family of residence for at least four generations. The Stoltzfus Farm of Lancaster County, Pennsylvania, the Yoder-Miller Farm of Holmes County, Ohio, the Bontrager-Miller Farm of LaGrange County, Indiana. Amish Houses and Barns also includes a photographic essay of typical Amish architecture in each of the three communities. Its numerous anecdotal stories,"Barn Fire," "The Farm Is Strip-Mined," and "Amish Style Graffiti", enhance the human story.
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherGood Books
    Release dateMar 1, 2002
    ISBN9781680992199
    Amish Houses & Barns
    Author

    Stephen Scott

    Stephen Scott was born in Frankston, Victoria, and educated at Peninsula Grammar and the Royal Australian Air Force (RAAF) College.His passion for teaching leadership developed while serving in the RAAF for more than two decades. After accepting an offer to be promoted and commissioned as an officer midway through his service career, Stephen graduated from initial officer training and later returned to the RAAF College as an instructor to teach leadership. He completed his service in 2003, exiting as a senior executive at No. 1 Squadron in Queensland.Since leaving the RAAF, Stephen has established himself as a prominent author, speaker and facilitator of leadership. As the founding director of his company Laurus Enterprises, Stephen has consulted to multiple sectors including aviation, environmental science, renewable energies, public health, manufacturing, finance, farming, mining and resources, water management, architecture, recruitment, utilities and information technology. Stephen has earned a reputation as a game-changer in leadership through his speaking, writing and programs based on The 15 Disciplines. He leads both the New Principals and Aspiring Principals leadership programs for Independent Schools Queensland and chairs three roundtable groups for experienced independent school principals and senior leaders. He is a Director of the FSAC Limited board that oversees two independent schools and is also the Chair of St John's Anglican College Council in Queensland.Stephen is the recipient of numerous leadership awards and commend-ations, including the RAAF College Officer Qualities Award and the Australian Air Commander's Commendation.Stephen is married to Cassandra and they have one adult daughter, Erin.

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      Book preview

      Amish Houses & Barns - Stephen Scott

      1.

      Home: The Center of Amish Life

      In Amish society all church-related functions—worship services, weddings, and funerals—occur in the home. Many Amish people also prefer that both birth and death take place at home.

      The Old Order Amish have no church buildings, no recreation halls, no nursing homes, and no funeral parlors. All the functions of these facilities normally take place in their homes. The Amish world revolves around the home.

      Although hospitals and modern medicine are used by the Amish people when needed, many Amish women also prefer the warm, familiar surroundings of home for giving birth. Registered midwives and doctors who agree to make home deliveries are patronized. In some Amish communities doctors provide rural, home-like birthing centers for their Amish clients.

      Most Amish people also prefer to spend their last days in the familiar home environment. Every effort is made to preserve life (although not artificially prolong it), but when death seems imminent an Amish person will usually choose to be with the family at home. While the deceased person is taken to a mortuary for preparation, the body comes back to the home for the viewing and funeral.

      Togetherness At All Costs

      As the institution of the home crumbles in North America the Amish take great effort to preserve it. Many of the radical nonconformist practices of Amish life were instituted to nurture family cohesiveness. The whole idea of restricting mobility by forbidding the ownership of cars is an endeavor to preserve home life. Amish people argue that fast, easy transportation draws family members away from the home.

      Limited technology in Amish homes is conducive to family togetherness. Space heaters draw family members together. The ban on cars also helps to keep people at home.

      In Amish society three or more generations of a family often live on the same farmstead. The Dawdy Haus (grandfather house) makes the elderly an integral part of the family unit.

      Limited technology within the home further draws the family together and discourages the isolation of individual members. The lack of central heating promotes family togetherness in the few heated rooms in the house. Prohibiting electricity and restricting the number of light sources encourages family life by fostering a central place where all family members spend time reading, working on hobbies, or playing gams.

      The Elderly: Needed and Wanted

      The Amish also try to keep the elderly involved in the life of the home. Typically, a small separate house or an addition to the larger house will be built for the grandparents after their children have families of their own. This is the classic Dawdy Haus (grandfather house). In wisdom these quarters have their own kitchens and the grandparents usually do all of their own food preparation. The Amish realize that parent-child relationships can be strained by the continual presence of grandparents. However, the aged are highly respected and made to feel useful around the farm and home.

      While an Amish farmer generally hands over responsibility for the farm to the younger generation earlier than normal retirement age, he does not really retire. His help around the farm is both essential and welcome. Often the older family will start a small cottage industry to occupy their time and provide some extra income.

      As farmland has become scarce and expensive in the larger Amish communities, many families have turned to a variety of cottage industries. Like farming, members of the family can work together. Some of these home businesses provide for the unique needs of the Amish while others cater to outsiders.

      Home: The Place of Work

      Younger families have also increasingly turned to cottage industries as farmland has become scarce and expensive. These home businesses make it possible for young Amish men to stay at home with their families. They work together with their wives and children in much the same way as they would on a farm. Buggy shops, harness shops, woodworking shops, dry goods stores, and many other businesses typically involve the labor of many members of the family. Many Amish mothers also supplement the family income by producing quilts and other crafts in the home. With the exception of occasional help from Grossmommy next-door, no day care is needed.

      Home: The Place of Worship

      Individual Amish families are directly involved with the life of the church because they take turns hosting worship services in their homes. Each Amish congregation consists of a geographical unit called a district which typically includes from twenty to forty family units. Worship services are held every other Sunday in most Amish communities; thus, a turn comes around no more than once or twice a year. By focusing on the home as the place of worship, the church in Amish society is thought of as a body of believers rather than a building or a place. Each family contributes to the life of the church by providing both a place for meeting and the food for a fellowship meal after the services.

      Each family in an Amish church district takes its turn hosting a church service. Specially designed wagons transport the church benches from one home to the next. In warm weather church services are often held in barns.

      Much preparation precedes an Amish church service. The family spends many hours cleaning the house, sprucing up the farmstead, and preparing food. The furniture is removed from several rooms in the house and simple, backless benches are arranged in closely spaced rows. Some of these same benches are transformed into dinner tables after the church service.

      Home: The Place of Recreation

      On a different level, the home is also the scene of evening social activities among Amish young people. Traditionally, unmarried young folks have gathered around tables in living rooms and kitchens to sing hymns on Sunday evenings. Depending on the mind-set of the particular youth group, the gatherings occasionally are not so docile.

      Courtship also takes place at home. A young Amish man typically has a date at his girlfriend’s home after the Sunday evening singing. In some communities Saturday night is also a time for dating. Although the dating couples meet in the home, they are normally secluded from other members of the family, spending their time together in the formal parlor after the rest of the family has gone to bed.

      One of the few major functions of life that does not take place in the home is school. However, even in this case the schools are small, one-room buildings maintained and managed by the Amish community. They are usually within walking distance of every student’s home.

      2.

      Amish Architecture

      The absence of electric lines and the presence of a long washline and horse barn indicate Amish ownership of this Lancaster County home even though the house appears quite modern.

      When traveling through Amish communities, one may notice certain distinctive architectural features. In addition, individual Amish communities sometimes also have their own unique architectural styles. For example, Amish farmsteads in LaGrange County, Indiana, have some features which distinguish them quite clearly from Amish farmsteads in Lancaster County, Pennsylvania.

      However, uniformity in architectural styles holds far less importance in the Amish world than uniformity in dress and vehicle styles. Through the years building styles appear to have changed more than most other areas of Amish life. In addition to terrain and available materials, the lack of complete uniformity in building styles is affected by the fact that Amish people moving into new communities often buy houses built by non-Amish people. While they usually modify the building to suit their needs, the core structures remain. These hybrid structures sometimes influence later new structures on Amish homesteads. This has especially been true in recent years when many Amish carpenters have been employed as homebuilders for the larger society. Ideas picked up while building houses for non-Amish people are sometimes used when constructing homes for themselves.

      Although architecture is not as uniform as many areas of Amish life, each community has developed some unique building styles. The farm in the top photograph shows a multi-generation house and large white barn characteristic of Lancaster County, Pennsylvania. The farm in the bottom photograph shows a distinctively simple house and unpainted barn particular to the white top Amish of central Pennsylvania.

      The Amish have been accused of overemphasizing externals, but where architectural styles are concerned, outward appearances in some respects appear unimportant. Many older houses especially lack any semblance of exterior symmetry. Even when Amish people move into houses built along classic Georgian lines, the original form is eventually obscured by numerous additions jutting from all sides of the structure. It appears many Amish families give little thought to presenting a unified architectural facade to passersby. In fact, it is often difficult to tell which door represents the main entrance to an Amish house.

      This Amish home near Aylmer, Ontario, demonstrates the Amish emphasis on simplicity and the disregard for symmetry in respect to the placement of windows.

      Kitchens in many Amish homes look surprisingly modern. This Lancaster County example shows how a family can live quite comfortably without electricity.

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