We usually see photos of fully-furnished Amish homes and farmhouses on the market. This one is a little different – the place has been emptied out already. We can see what it would look like for a buyer moving in. While it might be a little less interesting from the perspective of not seeing Amish furnishings, on the other hand you don’t often get the empty house view.
This home is in Angelica, New York (Allegany County). It’s the same community where we saw another Amish home up for sale two weeks ago. In addition, there is at least one more Amish place on the market in this community.
This recalls the situation in Fleming County, Kentucky, where 7 Amish homes had gone up for sale online. In that case, a group of Amish was likely leaving to start another community somewhere else. Perhaps something similar is going on here.
Here’s the description of this place from Zillow:
Amish farm, was working dairy farm. 2500 sq ft home, 2 story dairy barn/silo. Shop, saw mill. Wind mill. Property has well and septic. 88.4 acres about half woods and half hay fields/barns & home. Possibly a little more woods than half. Good hunting. Not on the county highways so a little more peace & quiet. Great place for animals, hobbies, hunting, hobby farming, get away from it all. Nice porch to read a book on. Tons of room for 4 wheelers, snow mobiles, dirt bikes.
Then there is this second part, painting the picture of what it might be like to live here:
Imagine if you will, walking down off the porch on a crisp fall day taking a bite out of a Macintosh heading for one of your many out buildings gazing at beautiful fall foliage! Just think of the evening outdoor fires! Close to state lands, Cartwright’s Maple Tree Inn just around the corner. This is the one you’ve been waiting for!!! Roof 2 years old.
That’s what good real estate agents do – they help you imagine what your life might be like as the owner of the home (well, help you imagine the pluses anyway – I don’t know that many agents would promote the knee-deep “lake effect” snow that the area is subject to).
There are a lot of beautiful autumn views which were likely taken just recently since the home has been listed for not quite two months.
The home has four bedrooms and two bathrooms.
What are we looking at here?
Blue trim.
Cabinets?
Some of the photos are taken at odd angles.
I called this place “empty inside”, but that’s not quite right. Here we have a sink in what appears to be the kitchen. Left behind?
Porch view.
Here’s outside in the shop building.
Outside again – rooftop views. Looks like someone climbed on top of one of the buildings. That’s a nice idea for capturing a property that you don’t usually see.
The farm includes 88+ acres of land. So what’s the price?
It’s currently listed at $189,000.
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The question is not what is the price....
The question is, how high are the taxes ! And how bad are the regulations ! I’m originally from new york. I can’t imagine why there are any Amish left in that state. The taxes are rediculious, and the regulations. I know of people there paying over $10,000 a year in property taxes on a small house on less than an acre. I’d never go back !
Farm for sale
The property taxes is likely around $3500 a year. Properties in upstate NY have traditionally seemed like great bargins but the weather is difficult at best. That nook iff the living room would make a great sewing/quilt room. Ample natural light with three windows. I could live here.
Snow
I live in Upstate NY and Lake Effect snow is a bit more than knee deep. We live East of Lake Ontario and our lake effect is 2-6 feet, usually from one storm. Living not near a main road is quieter but means no plows until late morning. The house is beautiful and I would love to own it. I thought I saw an electric panel in the kitchen picture, or maybe it is a grey painted cupboard.
Good to have that confirmed 🙂 I initially wrote “waist-deep” but decided to be more conservative in my estimate. But maybe even “waist-deep” is underselling it. I read that Allegany County where this home is located has in the neighborhood of 70 inches of snowfall per season. I was once caught up in Lake Effect snow, in Geauga County, Ohio, and had to spend the night in my truck at a gas station because the roads were so bad. That was in April, so it didn’t get waist-deep at least.
I see what you mean in the kitchen. I’m thinking those are cupboards.
I have a question about Amish services every other Sunday–they are shared or rotated to each member’s house, is that correct? I was sort of looking for a large room in the house where a church congregation could be accommodated. How large is an average Amish congregation on Sunday? I imagine that it might noted if one or two of the congregant families are not in attendance and inquiries made?? This leads me to another question, in a culture or society that presumably makes little use of the telephone, how do various Amish people keep in touch? Is there more letter writing?
PS on Elouise's comment
I had heard years ago that property taxes in New York state are atrociously high–I lived just across the line in Erie County Pennsylvania once upon a time. Many attributed it to the fact that it was because of New York City–I guess in many ways NYC is like a dead weight on the rest of the state of New York, at least tax wise.
Big Changes in This Community
I know this community–but not why it’s emptying out as quickly as it sprang up! My friends who left it will not say. The area is very rural, but not really so far from necessary resources, as long as you like the folks you live with and don’t miss a lot of company. They get a lot of snow and the roads are dirt, but still maintained and passable all year. This community was a very conservative one of “Troyer Amish.” Each house was built to be or, converted to be, completely sufficient although off the grid. That sink is plumbed into some water supply so that there is running cold water to the house. There would have been a large, wood-fired hot water tank outside or in the washroom for hot water for baths and washing. This big stainless steel appliance also doubles as a very large water-bath canner and holds at least 60 quart jars at a time! The wood cookstove in the kitchen would have had a hot water reservoir on it so that there is continual hot water available except in the summer, when they move that big heater out on to a porch so it doesn’t heat up the house. If this was a converted English house, it probably has a septic system–some of the Amish piped their gray water from the kitchen/washroom sinks to their non-flush toilets so that the waste in them was “flushed” or sloshed out to the septic. They all built a toilet room connected to the house in some out-of-the-way spot. I am surprised that the “two bathrooms” still exist and hadn’t been converted to pantry or added to another room…shows that the moving in and the moving out must have been pretty quick. With the clever ways this conservative Amish group equips their homes, it would be pretty easy to live of-grid if you wanted to. One would just have to make certain to have all of the right appliances-kerosene lamps, wood cookstove in kitchen, coal stove in living room, hot water heater in the washroom-to make it happen. Of course, I would have to have a gasoline generator or a solar panel or two in order to charge up some batteries so I could access my computer and the internet! Thanks for posting this story.
Great details Lorna, thanks for adding this to the post. So it sounds like whatever is driving people to move might be something that is not so comfortable to speak about with outsiders.