Daily 9-5
(Bus, School, 4H, Scouts)
What One Man Can Do |
"For where your treasure is, there will your heart be also." Luke 12:34 |
.In the scale of one inch to the foot,
Henry Moore has built a unique world with dozens of buildings of historic
interest. His workshop was in an old horse barn in South Amana, in the
heart of the historic Amana Colonies of Iowa. Every spring though fall,
thousands of people come to see the little buildings in charming displays
created by the Moore's.
......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 1890'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 thier chruch, The Community of True Inspiration, an off-shoot of
16th Century Lutheranism.
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Henry Moore was always hard at work with his miniatures, Here he is building a dairy barn. |
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Charlotte Moore Feb 24th, 1913 - Mar 13th,1993 is pictured here. The Moore family welcomes all of you to view the miniature collection built by their father, Henry Moore. Charlotte was responsible for all of the activity seen in the collection. She worked hard assisting her husband during his fifteen years of building the 200 miniatures - helping with suggestions for landscaping, curtains and many extra touches typical of a women's view. |
A SHORT STORY OF WHAT ONE MAN CAN DO!
Mini-Americana is the largest known collection of miniature replicas
built by
one man in the United States, woodworker Henry Moore (1911-1983).
Henry Moore had a dream. The dream became a reality in 1968 when, at
the age
of 58, Mr. Moore asked his grandchildren if they would like him to build
a
miniature barn. With an enthusiastic “yes!”, a dream was born
and is now a
permanent exhibit at the South Amana Barn Museum.
Following a scale of one inch to one foot, Mini-Americana is a unique
display
of over 200 miniatures that depict the history of rural America. Each
building, an exact replica of an original structure either past or present,
took an average of six months to complete. Each exhibit is finished
in
complete detail, inside and out: Shingles are fashioned from real cedar,
siding is worked to exact proportions, and window panes are made of
real
glass. Houses have curtains; the blacksmith shop has a forge; and the
barns
have pens, mangers and even movable stanchions. Activities abound from
fertile imaginations.
A boyhood dream came true when Mr. Moore acted on the ideas harbored
in his
heart. Mini-Americana is a warm, personal experience filled with educational
history, architecture and wonderment. Many of our visitors have commented
that it is a “trip worth taking for the young and old alike.”
The Barn Museum
Box 124 South Amana, Iowa 52334
319-622-3058