Extraordinary Stories From An Ordinary Guy: The "Tourism Begins In Lancaster's Amish Country" Story

The curtain of the Broadway Musical "Plain and Fancy". Click to enlarge.

It was an ordinary day. Looking at a few posters from the Broadway musical "Plain and Fancy" that opened on Broadway in 1955. Even found a "Playbill" brochure for the musical. I can slightly remember the musical about "The Amish," but at the time I was only an 11 year old boy who was more interested in playing "off the wall" baseball behind my home on North Queen St. in Lancaster than going to a Broadway Musical.

Poster for the Broadway Musical.

Seems like the stage curtain for the musical featured a map of the area in Pennsylvania where a big majority of Amish lived at that time in history. And, the little town known as Bird-in-Hand was right in the center of the curtain. Well, before long, Lancaster County was filled with busloads of tourists! And, before you realized what had happened, the "Amish Farm and House" was opening. The ads for the place told you to escape to Amish Country and enjoy your vacation at a slower pace. At "The Amish Farm and House" you could cross off your entire Amish Country bucket list. Guided house tours, farm tours, bus tours, buggy rides...they had them all at one place!

The Historical Journal booklet sits by my keyboard.

They also had farm animals, alleged Amish artisans and plenty of Amish food. Now, did you pronoun that correctly as you read that? It's not "A" mish, it's "Ah" mish! Oh yeah, the bus rides through the countryside would stop at Amish shops where you could buy even more Amish souvenirs.

Entrance to The Amish Farm and Home in Lancaster, Pennsylvania.

Often wondered if these stores had to give a percentage of their sales from bus riders to the owner of "The Amish Farm and House."

This shows the buildings of The Amish Farm and House.

After touring the farmland, petting the farm animals and making stops to shop, you could then stop at The Amish one-room schoolhouse.

The one-room school house on The Amish Farm and House.

Thousands of tourists made their journey to Lancaster County to visit Amish Country. I must admit, it did give plenty of people, both Amish and just plain locals, jobs for many years. Actually, it still does that. And, as I sit in my lounge chair and type this, I am looking at a copy of a very colorful booklet put out by Lancaster County's Historical Society which has in big letters: "The Amish Farm and House" across its cover.

Clothes hang from the washlines which run above a farm wagon.

I must admit the articles are very interesting, written by scholars from the Lancaster area. Today you can still make a visit to "The Amish Farm and House" along SR30. Can't miss it since it sits directly next to a large Target store. But, the exploitation of The Amish began quite a few years before the building of "The Amish Farm and House".

An interior bedroom. Notice the hand-sewn quilt.

As reported in "The Scribbler" in the Lancaster Newspaper, which is written by Jack Brubaker, Lancaster County's destination as a tourist Mecca began shortly after World War II when the general manager of the oldest hotel in the city of Lancaster began to offer guided bus tours of The Amish country. By the mid-1950s the tourist business was going strong and then came Broadway and "The Amish Farm and House".

Girls and women's dresses hang ready to wear.

According to "The Scribbler", when "The Amish Farm and House" originally opened, an Amish family lived on the second floor of the 1805 house. I suspect no one lives there anymore. It was reported that when the attraction originally opened, close to 150,000 people visited the attraction each year.

Men's and boy's straw hats hang ready to wear.

Then the Dutch Tourist Bureau was started to publicize tourism and they drew about 2 million visitors to the county in 1960. Then in 1963, potato farmer Earl Clark, opened Dutch Wonderland which is a 48 acre amusement park just east of Lancaster in Amish Country. I'm not sure how many people visit Lancaster County and "The Amish Farm and House" today, but I try and avoid SR30 whenever I can. Just how do I do that? Follow the same routes that the Amish follow, since they know the best routes around Amish Country. It was another extraordinary day in the life of an ordinary guy.