7 September 2013 In the Amanas

Patrice and I started the day with breakfast at the Colony Restaurant in Amana. We had the only breakfast offered--a family style feast of eggs, sausage, bacon, fruit, orange juice, toast and strawberry jam, and fried potatoes. In the true Amana style it was all you could eat of every breakfast item.

Later in the morning Jerry, Marge, Patrice, and I decided to visit five of the colonies away from main Amana; it's Saturday, and the outlying colonies' businesses are more likely to be closed on Sundays. Homestead was the first colony we visited. Relying on maps of various attractions, we had decided to visit Henry's Village Market--as we turned into the parking lot, we noticed the Homestead Blacksmith Shop. As we entered the shop we were greeted by a man and young woman who was operating a pedal-driven letterpress printing machine.

Turns out the man was a professor from the University of Iowa teaching a young graduate student about the evolution of printing over time. Jessica, the student, was in the process of printing sheet with a quotation over an already printed background of green grasses. The background printing had been done from carved linoleum blocks set into a printing frame and run through the press. Marge and Patrice each received a copy. The professor was a wealth of knowledge on old printing machines, particularly on the linotype that was also installed in the shop. The professor explained the operation of the linotype to Jerry; his uncle was a linotype operator.

Printing machine at Homestead blacksmith shop

 The letterpress printer

The linotype

After spending some time in the shop Patrice and I visited Henry's Village Market. It was a small grocery operating in the old Homestead smoked meat shop (each colony used to have their own). Henry was a young man who stocked his little store with deli items, and an assortment of mostly organic products. A room adjacent to the shop displayed antiques for sale. The store was nothing fancy or particularly large--Henry and his family liked the simple life they were leading and loved the store and the peaceful surroundings.

Zuber's Homestead Hotel was just down the street. When Patrice and I last visited the colonies about 10 years ago (as near as we can remember), Zuber's was a restaurant that also displayed baseball memorabilia that Mr. Zuber had collected when he played major league baseball. He has passed on, the restaurant was sold and converted to the hotel, and most of the memorabilia is with the Zuber family. Wandering the halls, we looked into open rooms in the hotel. They are furnished and decorated with antique reproduction furniture, and some antique chairs and nightstands. The walls are covered with hooked rugs, farm implements, framed needlework of all sorts, photographs of old families, and paintings of farm scenery and activities. One bedroom had a king-sized bed, a triangular jetted tub in the corner, and a full bathroom attached. It rents for $135 a night. Other rooms cost less--it would be fun to stay there a night or two.

Finally, we stopped at a copper art shop in Homstead. This shop is in an old service and filling station. The copper art was fantastic--beautiful work: butterflies, herons, flowers of all sorts and sizes, fish--just too big to put in our 5th wheel.

I'm leaning on a praying mantis

At West Amana where we visited the broom and basket shop. Patrice bought a broom--the worlds largest solid walnut rocker was in a nearby museum room, along with baskets and other art pieces.

Patrice and I were sad to see that the broom and basket shop had been moved out the original little building into a new modern building, and that many wood items were added to the inventory, same items as in the Schanz furniture store we visited yesterday. Some of the items were from Iowa artists, not connected with the Amanas. Economic pressures of the times I guess. We drove around West Amana and looked at some of the original brick and wood homes, then returned to Main Amana for lunch at Serena's Coffee Shop. Marge and Jerry have a granddaughter named Serena. I had an old-fashioned root beer float and a cup of soup for lunch.

Back to High Amana where we visited the High Amana General Store. This store is also a museum--the contents have been preserved from the old times that this stores was open. Items were for sale among the museum pieces that were behind glass cases or on high shelves. No tax on the items purchased here, because it is part of the National Historic Landmark designation given to the Amana Colonies. Here, as in the other colonies, we drove around looking at the old and new homes and buildings, and even found an old cemetery. 

On to Middle Amana where we visited the Communal Kitchen and Cooper Shop museums. A lady in the kitchen explained how all of the communal meals were prepared and served in the building every day, until the Great Change of 1932. 60 kitchens were spread throughout the colonies, each serving 30 to 40 people every day. Five meals were served daily: breakfast at 6:00, a morning lunch at 8:30, dinner at 11:30, afternoon lunch at 2:30, and supper at 5:00. In the dining room a week of menus were posted and the tables were set as if for a meal. Diners were expected to finish their meal in 15 minutes, and conversation was discouraged.

The cooperage shop was set up as if ready to have work done; we were interested in some of the unique tools (curved planes) used to make barrels and working buckets. There was no one watching over the shop, and we were surprised at the items that were left loose.

This ended our day's visits to the colonies located within the original 26,000 acres of land owned by the Amana Society.

Patrice and I had dinner at the Ronneburg restaurant in Amana. Patrice had the "baked beef steak," which turned out to be a Swiss steak. I had walleye; it was overcooked, with the breading too crisp. We still like the Ox-Bow Restaurant best, just thought we would try something different.

We saved tomorrow to visit the shops in Amana.