Amish-owned Raber’s book shop in Holmes County, Ohio
We’ve featured Raber’s Bookstore a number of times on this blog. Raber’s is a long-lived Amish book seller in the heart of Holmes County. Mary Raber, who runs the place, kindly let me shoot a few photos during a recent visit.
The outside of the shop. It is the building on the left made of cream-colored blocks. The Raber’s crew has plans to move the shop to a new structure which is being readied next-door.
Raber’s has a good selection of religious, inspirational, and Amish-themed books.
They also have a nice children’s section. Gas-burning Amish lights are strategically placed around the store. You can see one in the background of this photo. It is a bit dim inside Raber’s, but on a day like this one, the natural light coming in the windows lets you see all you need to.
The register area. This is where you chat with Mary and pay for your finds. And pick up a business card and purple store pen, if you like.
Close-up on the register. Yes, Mary sells a few sweets too.
Raber’s does most of their sales by catalog, but they welcome visitors. Here’s the address if you’d like to visit Raber’s. You can also write them for a catalog:
Raber’s Bookstore
2467 County Road 600
Baltic, OH 43804
Attached to Raber’s is a stamping shop. We’ll have more on that shop, including photos, in a future post.
And: have you visited any Amish book stores? If you enjoyed this post, let us know of any other book shops out there that might be worth paying a visit.
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37 responses to Inside an Amish bookstore
Greetings!!
This looks like a fun place to visit and shop in. I love books!! I have not been to an Amish book store yet but would love to go. Do you happen to know of any in Arthur, IL? I plan on going to Arthur next week if all works out. I will also check in with the tourist information place in the old train depot but if you know of any Erik that would be appreciated.
Miller’s Dry Goods in Arthur has gas lamps that hang from the ceiling. They do a double duty as they provide both light and heat in the winter time. I remember the first time I was in there in the winter. It was quite warm with those gas fixtures going. It was a little dim in some areas of the store but as you said, still plenty of light to see by.
Blessings, Alice
Inside an Amish bookstore
Amish bookstore Illinois
Alice as far as I know this is an Amish-owned shop with books, I don’t know what their selection is like:
Clearview Fabrics & Books
178 E Cr 500 N, Arthur, IL 61911-6262
(217) 543-9091
There is (was?) a book dealer a couple miles southeast of town when I was there in 2004, not sure of the name or coordinates though.
Erik
Thanks Erik!! I printed your info and will look for it while I am down there. I’ll also see if I can find the other one south of town too.
Alice
I love to read, and frequent the library in my area a lot. I am happy to know that the Amish are aloud to read books, out side of the bible that is. I had heard that books other than the bible were not aloud is some communities, is that true?
The photos could have been taken at an Amish store I often frequent in Sinking Valley, PA It is owned by two elderly Amish sisters. (Renno sisters) It is charming with greeting cards, quilts, fabric, notions, books, and necessities the Amish need for daily life. They will order anything they are able from a thick catalog they keep under the counter. If you are looking for non-electric appliances, this is the place to shop!
Inside an Amish bookstore
How fun! I’ve never seen an Amish bookstore. I wonder if in their new building they’ll have a few comfortable chairs and a Starbucks? LOL! I’ll have to look for a bookstore next time I’m near an Amish area.
If anyone would like to visit the shop in Sinking Valley, PA, please email me and I will send you directions.
Looks very much like Gordonville Bookstore in Gordonville, PA- just outside of Bird In Hand.
I love the rack in the Children’s section … the little denim purses and what looks like maybe a bag of happy face pins or stickers?
Hey Erik I’ve not been around on Amish America for a week or so, but it looks like you are really getting around visiting Amish communities from state to state. It is kind of on the dark side at this Amish book store, and I’m not trying to use a “star wars” reference here. I have been in a few Amish shops with no gas lights but the thing that they did have working for them was plenty of natural light, but I’m getting picky here so i hope your enjoying your trip and i know some really good images will come from your visits to these Amish settlements in future posts. Richard www.Amishstorys.com
Inside an Amish bookstore
I don’t know the name of it-but in Waterloo, New York there is a bookstore in the back of the Mennonite Grocery Store. They have Amish and Mennonite novels, childrens books, school books, and more. You are kind of surprised to find a book store in the back of a grocery store when you are going up and down the grocery isles. Of course it is a huge store.
Marilyn
amish bookstore
Love the pictures. I noticed they had two csh registers and also a calculator. I wonder why two ?
Business is booming?
ones for the books and the other one for the stamp store!
Yes, I have been to Amish bookstores … This one in fact!
Also gave me some good discounts on others. Nothing like taking care of your taxi driver. 
I used to haul Ben and his wife with my taxi service. (she was in a wheelchair … wonder how she is doing? That was about 4 years ago.)
Ben is a very nice man. He gave me several books out of the store … to learn PA German.
His son Aden is an interesting man (Mary’s husband). The only Amish “scrapper” that I know of. I would meet him at auctions buying up the scrap metal. When he got a few tons together he would hook his tractor to his overfilled wagons and head for Coshocton to cash out about $1500 worth of metals. Somehow he managed to get around on a rubber-tired tractor, in spite of being Old Order. But I am thinking maybe that it had a backhoe attachment, so maybe it skirted the ban on using tractors for going places.
Mike
Inside an Amish bookstore
Haven’t been to an Amish book store, but the Amish stores I go to, they also have several books…..
I also noticed the two cash registers and calculator…..aren’t these electric ??????Just wondering………
Enjoyed your article, and the pictures….
BTW did you receive my personal email re: butter ???? Haven’t heard from you on it !!!!
Those cash registers are set up to run on batteries. The Old Order in that area are not opposed to solar, and the majority seem to have solar panels to run some lights and small equipment like this. Of course, they may just run on AA batteries.
In Lancaster County, PA there is a shop on Stumptown Road that has lots of books, lots of quilts, crafts, best homemade soft pretzels, fresh milk shakes, bird houses, clocks, fudge, root beer, cakes, etc. Unfortunaly the Bus tours stop here too. Go to the crossroad of Stumptown Road and Rt. 772 (Newport Rd). Visit the Old Mill at that intersection. A guide will demostrate that the Mill still works. It use to have a post office in one corner. Free tour, but you can tip the volunteer guide. From this intersection, go NE on Stumptown Rd. (crossing 772) for about a mile and look for the beautiful farm with Green roofs to visit this Amish farm.
Inside an Amish bookstore
My kind of place! JUST READ!
I’ve never ben to Raber’s, but I’ve ordered a number of items from them, from bound books to coloring books—which are truly unique–I mean, how many children’s coloring books have you ever seen with a deer hanging from a tree, ready to be–uh–”prepared”? They’re all obviously hand-drawn by regular people—certainly not anyone trained in graphic design or art. They’re treasures!
I had a credit from them for an item they no long carry. I’m waiting for my next order to arrive—it takes a while, but it’s worth it!
Thanks for posting the pictures, Erik. I’d like to visit there someday!
Alice Mary
Inside an Amish bookstore
Very nice Pathway bookstore on 250W in the South Howe, Indiana church district…
http://img801.imageshack.us/img801/5756/dcp0001i.jpg – - – http://img853.imageshack.us/img853/4690/dcp0002.jpg
Amish Bookstore in Indiana
Tom, you mentioned an Amish bookstore in West Howe(?), Indiana. Can you tell me approximately how far this is from Shipshewana, and if you know of any other Amish bookstores in the northern Indiana area? Thanks!
In Berlin, Ohio, right in the main hub of things, is a Christian bookshop that sells lots of Amish books, fiction & non-fiction, at a really good discount. Also, the big antique shops in that area have some dealers who are selling their Amish novels at a real good price. I remember we went to this Amish variety store way back on a farm somewhere in Fredericksburg, Ohio, and they had a large book and stationery section, and it was just as dark inside as Raber’s looks.
In Lancaster County, PA, we stop into the Gordonville Bookstore at 275 Old Leacock Road where I get a copy of The Diary, which is a white pamphlet style newspaper similar to The Budget. They sell lots of books, stationery, and stamping supplies, and sometimes even foodstuffs where I’ve gotten a hefty zip-sealed bag of local shelled walnuts for $2.00! There’s also a place called JL Bookstore at 147 Amishtown Road in New Holland, PA, but sorry to say I’ve not been there yet.
Inside an Amish bookstore
Debbie, that would have been Yoder’s Country Store, near Fredricksburg. It is a the far-end of a very long lane that runs back to several OO farms. I have been there several times – just love that place.
To Erik or Primitive Christianity...
In a previous life did this book store use to be a milking parlour by any chance?
Oldkat, yes I remember it did have something to do with milk, but can’t recall what she said exactly.
Rocky Cedars Enterprises
2156 Country Store Lane
Dayton, VA 22821-2112
(540) 879-9714
Run by two OO Mennonite sisters. Nice selection of books, fabric, childrens puzzles, hats and other items for plain living. I got my church jacket there. Nice ladies.
OTHER AMISH BOOK SHOPS
Has anyone ever been to Farmerstown Broom & Book. I am pretty sure that it is going out of business as I saw an “Absolute Auction” of the business in the Bargain Hunter 2 weeks ago…. bummer, it was a nice little shop.
Mary, I was there a few years back. Interesting shop, as the broom maker was blind. But he was getting to be an older man, so I can easy see that he would be retiring, or died?? Mike
Mike – he did indeed pass away a couple of years back and his widow continued to run the shop. She, too, is up there in years and I think it has gotten to be too much.
Farmerstown Broom and Book
Mary on this last trip I visited Farmerstown Broom and Book and was told the same, that Blind Syl had died a couple years ago. I didn’t hear anything about a sale. The gentleman who was running the place showed me the brooms and broom-making equipment, and said someone else was helping out.
We stopped in Delaware at an Amish owned Fabric shop (my wife is a quilter). Now while it had a great selection of fabric, it also had alot of other goods and a wonderful book store. There were a couple of tall book shelves full! Cant remember the name of it, but we spent some money on fabric and books!
Found the name of the store…its Shady Lane Selections, in Dover, DE.
Kevin I enjoyed visiting Shady Lane earlier this year, spent a bit more time at Sunny View (Almost sounds like they chose their names in tandem
)
There is a small, but well stocked bookstore in the coutryside west of Nappanee, IN. The store is right on the Elkhart/Marshall county line. The road is CR100 in Elkhart Co just south of US 6 or 1050W in Marshall Co. The store sits well off the road on the west side behind another set of buildings, but a sign shows you the right driveway.
location of amish bookstores
Hi Erik! I really enjoy AMISH AMERICA which I just discovered this fall 2011. My Amish travels are only in Penn. (I live in northern New Jersy and travel alone).
While I was in the Montuar/Columbia area,
I asked an Amish woman about the Jersy Shore area but she could not give me any details so as not to disturb their privacy. Is there a Jersey Shore area along the Susquahana River that is friendly to tourists? I love quilt/fabric shops, bookstores and basically anything Amish.
I have a very old copy of AMISH COMMUNITIES and would love to get the newest edition so I can find more of these special little shops. Is there a bookstore that accept mail-orders?
I am already looking forward to a trip this spring.
Keep up the good work!
Marianne Penn
Inside an Amish bookstore
AMISH BIBLE GERMAN
I believe that the Amish use the Luther translation of the Bible of 1542 in German. Do you carry the same and, if so, at what price? Robert Schwind
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