About The Museum

Henry Moore has created a typical Amana village combining Amana, Middle, East, West, High, South and Homestead into one complex with granaries, homes, barns, wash houses and other typical outbuildings. His Amana miniature buildings are on the first floor of the Barn Museum.

Preserving the flavor of rural Americana was an important goal for Mr. Moore. "The small towns, the farms as they were and other scenes are going to be a thing of the past before too long." he explained. "I just got caught up with it and decided this was one way to preserve some of the flavor of rural America."

Incredible Attention to Detail

The little homes have curtains, barns have pens, mangers, movable stanchions. On the roof of the granary a squirrel is trying to gain access. In the back yards, clothes dry on the line. Windowpanes in the little buildings are made of glass. The Amana Granary has 2,290 pieces of wood and 200 screws, and an Amana barn is constructed with 9,897 nails in drilled holes to keep the wood from splitting.

Village Reproductions

Major themes include his Amana reproductions, pioneer Iowa farmsteads, small town Americana, Abraham Lincoln's village of New Salem, IL., a California logging camp of the late 1800's, a Plains Indian village, The Little Brown Church and a Louisiana sugar plantation of the 1840's.

The Amana Colonies in Amana, South, Homestead, East, West, Middle and High were once about an hour apart by ox-cart. The people lived in a communal society bound by the rules of their church, "The Community of True Inspiration", an off-shoot of 16th Century Lutheranism.