The Best Stores in Ohio's Amish Country - Schlabach's Furniture

One of the finest Amish furniture stores in Ohio sits beside the Harrison Road in Wayne County, just over the border from Holmes County, about half a mile east of Maysville.  It used to be one of my favorite stops while touring the region.  Really, it still is, but things have changed in Amish Country.  Commerce seems to be driving the economy more than farming.  I’m not sure that is a good thing.

It was probably twenty years ago that Fannie Schlabach and her husband converted the long and narrow building of a chicken farm to a furniture store, and in those days Fannie would work the store while the men worked the fields.  I have not seen her there on recent trips, and I have meant to ask what has become of her.  But I get inside the store, and the furniture draws me in.  Soon I find myself wandering down the long interior of the building, picking out wood furniture for my dream home.  I can’t tell you how many times I’ve been ‘this close’ to refitting my study with cherry and walnut desks and shelves. 

Schlabach’s has changed a lot over the years.  First, it is not so hard to find anymore, because they have modern signs posted in front and on all the nearby roads.  Then the lighting inside is different now.  It used to be that skylights in the ceiling provided the only illumination, and one was best advised to shop there at mid-day, on a sunny day.  At one point they installed gas light mantles in the ceiling, and that seemed quintessentially Amish to me.  It also gave better light, though it made it quite a bit hotter in summer.  Now however, they have electric bulbs, and English people shop there all day long, rain or shine, and the gas mantles are used only in winter, to help with the heat. 

Are you surprised?  Electric lights in an Amish establishment?  But you see, the Schlabachs have not made themselves dependent on the electric company.  That would be disallowed by any right-thinking bishop.  Instead they run the lights with a gasoline generator.  That is now permitted sometimes.  Not in a residence of course, but more often than before, it is being allowed in places of business.

Now take another look at the photograph of the roof line.  Do you see it?  Right, that’s a solar panel.  Why waste gasoline on a sunny day?  The business is still Amish through and through, but that electricity – whether from a generator out back or a solar panel on the roof – changes it all around for me.  I find that I liked it better the old way – difficult to find and dimly illuminated.  It was one of the best secrets in the region.

Schlabach’s is still a superior store for hand-crafted Amish furniture.  Just don’t expect to find too much of that old world ambience there anymore.  It has changed like much of the rest of Amish Country.  I expect it won’t be long until they put in a phone.  And replace that hand-cranked adding machine with a calculator.