Inside A Blue-Door Amish Home (20 Photos)
One of my favorite things about looking at Amish homes is: there are almost always little details that stand out.
This week’s home fits that bill, as it looks like it was an English-built…but then there is that classic blue Amish door frame hinting that this is not currently an English-owned place.
I don’t know exactly what you call this style of home, but it’s not a classic Amish style, which you can tell from things like the green shutters, beige siding, overall design. Surprisingly to me, the listing says that it was built in 1880.
In the photo below though, we see it does look like it’s been added onto, in a more Amish-like style.
We also see by the half-visible buggy parked in the barn that this is not a Swartzentruber Amish home, given the SMV triangle.
The community is Pierpont, Ohio, which is in Ashtabula County. Ashtabula is a remarkable county when it comes to the Amish, hosting parts or all of seven different Amish settlements. This particular settlement got its start in 1994 and is home to around 300 Amish, so a pretty decent size.
The description via Zillow (another hat-tip to Lena for this one), first part on the home itself:
Welcome to a little bit of country and peace and quiet. This lovely 4 bedroom home features 2 large bedrooms down and 2 bedrooms up. There is a large eat-in kitchen and large dining room as well as a living room. There are wood floors thru-out. There is a newer basement under the main part of the house and there is a huge wash/mud room plus an attached wood storage room of 16 X 12. Makes it easy access to keep those home fires burning.
And the additional buildings and land:
There is a 24 x 30 horse barn with a 12′ lean-to and a separate shop that is 40 X 80 with a 16 x 32 lean-to. The main part of the shop has a 14′ ceiling and is insulated. Enjoy the large pasture which features a 10 plus Acre parcel which is approximately 5 acres of clear property and 5 acres of woods.
The flooring and other features we see inside do suggest this is a plainer group.
Kitchen
Another blue door this time seen from the interior, from the kitchen. Comparing this to the outside view, this appears to be the addition. Notice the type of flooring seen in plainer homes.
Strip of flypaper in the kitchen is a not uncommon sight in plainer homes as well.
This appears to be an unenclosed pantry area.
What’s in that baked goods tin? Probably empty but I’m curious nonetheless. That durable type of container is also commonly used by Amish to keep food sealed and fresh longer.
Living Area
This sitting/living area is plain, small but cozy. I could plop down in that rocker, or the glider.
Or maybe better in this one, next to a cook stove.
On second look I’m not sure that’s a rocker. Whether the chair moves or not, it is an unusual, atypical design for an Amish home.
Back to the previous room, a closer look at the oil lamps and other items. Lamps like these are one source of beauty in otherwise simple and sparsely-decorated Amish homes.
Bedrooms
The first bedroom we see here is almost certainly the parents’ room. Crib in the foreground, shotguns or rifles hanging above the bed, and safes for valuables stacked on the left all suggest that to be the case.
An upstairs bedroom with two beds
A collection of belongings and mementoes on the chest of drawers in this room.
School diploma and wooden boxes with what look like little locks.
That’s about it for photos, there are a few others of the interior and the property. So how much is this home on the market for? It is 1,971 square feet, with four bedrooms, one bathroom, on about 10 acres of land, with a number of outbuildings, like the horse barn below.
This property is for sale at $229,900, represented by Lois M. Blank of Assured Real Estate.
Paint
Could you tell me what color of blue paint the Amish use. I have tried to match it with paint cards with no success
I don’t know the shade, I think the blue may vary a bit based on what I’ve seen, sometimes being a bit darker or with a touch of grey. I always think of it as “sky blue”, but then again I’m a guy and we apparently don’t know colors that well!
Blue Door Amish House 11/10/23
Erik,
In the picture of the dresser w/ the diploma on it, I happened to notice that there were several photographs in frames, one of which appeared to be of a black & white dog: next to the dog it looks like an Amish woman wearing a kapp. Sadly, I was unable to magnify the picture to get a closer look at it.
A smaller picture, behind the locked trinket box in the center of the photo seems to be 2 Amish women at the beach, their backs to the camera.
I’m curious if you have any insight about that.
Thanks,
Adrienne McGinley
Good work Adrienne looking in closer, I can’t discern what’s in the frames as well…I have no additional info on what these might be other than what I might guess. But I would suppose that since these look like Amish people, the room belongs to a young Rumspringa-age person. You wouldn’t really see displayed photos of people in Amish homes otherwise.
style of house
This style of house architecture is often called “Western Reserve”. The characteristics of this style are the “upright” and “wing”. Usually the “wing” was built first when the family was small, and the “upright” would be added as the family grew. It was named after the Western Reserve, which is a section of Northeast Ohio that was settled by people from Connecticut. This section was originally a western territory of Connecticut, so to speak.
Thank you, was hoping someone would be able to describe it.
The Rocker
The rocking chair by the cook stove is known as a spring rocker. They are similar to a glider rocker, but sit on two large springs and have a bouncy sort of feel when you sit down and don’t have as much motion as say a regular rocker does. They have been in production since the mid to late 1800’s I believe. This one doesn’t look very old, they still make them today. This is a very nice home.
And thank you Stacy, that’s two things I’ve learned on this thread! Haven’t seen this before in Amish homes, usually the classic rockers or gliders.
Clutter
This Amish home feels cluttered to me. Every surface is full of little doodads. The pictures and diploma really threw me. Most Amish homes I have seen in pictures feel spacious, clean and open. All I feel in this one is tired from all the dusting,
Veterans Day
Thank you U.S. military veterans who have sacrificed and served our nation so all living in America can continue to enjoy life and prosper.
Thank you for standing for freedom and against aggression and tyranny.
Curtains
I notice that in most of the photos of homes, including here, the curtains seem to be fixed at the top and then tied away from the window.
Is that a typical American way of hanging curtains, or is it specifically Amish?
In England, certainly among the subcultures I’m aware of, curtains are usually hung on hooks or through eyelets on a rail and drawn along it to hang at the side of the window during the day, and I’m sure that is also what I remember seeing in a German home (though I haven’t spent a lot of time in Germany). This way of doing it seems rather a novelty to me. I suppose tying them aside like this would be better for shade, which it is unusual to need in great quantities in the UK!