We can arrange a dinner with an Amish family in their home during your visit with us… ask Dianne for details.

Our non-smoking guest rooms feature private baths, cable TV and a full breakfast by candlelight in the dining room each morning. We are located a brisk one block walk to Nappanee’s downtown square. Be Our Guest… we look forward to hearing from you.

Malerie Yolen-Cohen, author of Stay on Route 6, visited Nappanee last week.

Our Inn was home to writer Malerie Yolen-Cohen last week as she traveled west from her Connecticut home along The Grand Army Highway, US 6.  Her travels and stops along this historic road are being detailed for her travel guide “Stay on Route 6.”  By mid July she will have completed her trip.  Her stay with us and her visit to Amish Acres, The Round Barn Theater and the Coppes Commons were among her US 6 stops in Nappanee.  You can follow her blog posts as well at stayonroute6.blogspot.com…..Thanks Malerie, it was a joy to meet you….Safe Travels!!

The Round Barn at Amish Acres

There are lots of ways to explore the Amish and their fascinating, historic way of life. One of the most popular attractions is Amish Acres, a 80-acre farmstead listed in the National Register of Historic Places. This is a great place for families to visit and partake in guided tours and documentary films. Enjoy farm wagon ride, view broom making and quilting. Of course there is a family style dinner available, and the large and well-known Round Barn theater is a destination for live Broadway-quality musicals. If you are planning a summer trip, the 46th annual Amish Acres Arts and Crafts Festival is August 5 – 8, 2010.

There is nice shopping available there, or visit another favorite for our Nappanee Inn guests, the Borkholder Dutch Village. Much more than a flea market, this is a collection of vendors, over 300, in an air-conditioned hall. Find everything from crafts, furniture, antiques, collectibles and more. Borkholder also hosts weekly indoor antique auctions and flea markets. They also have a Dutch kitchen / Village Restaurant that serves breakfast and lunch, as well as delectable apple dumplings. Borkholder Village is less than 2 miles from our Hotel in Nappanee.

Looking for Amish Furniture? Nappanee has several great retailers, including Homestyle Furniture Shop. They specialize in locally handcrafted mission, shaker and heritage style furniture. Expect to find fine dining room and bedroom sets, grandfather and wall clocks, upholstered and hardwood rockers. Homestyle Furniture makes pieces that will undoubtedly become your family heirlooms. Their pieces are handcrafted in home workshops, mostly utilizing Oak and Cherry. They are less than a mile from our Amish Country Inn.

The area has so much to offer from these humble people, and we hope you will come to visit us at Homespun Country Inn soon and experience some of what Small Town America has to offer.

From quilt design to garden splendor.

Start your tour in Nappanee by wending your way along the Heritage Trail to tour the entire Quilt Gardens show. 80,000 blooms, 16 gardens, 32 juried designs and seven communities await you. Quilt Gardens sites in Nappanee include McCormick Creek Golf Course and Amish Acres.

In conjunction with the Quilt Gardens Tour, our Nappanee Inn is offering a hot deal. Call us and your reservation will include an overnight stay with an Inn room welcome tray of sweet treats and beverages, a full breakfast by candlelight and a $10 gas card to get you home safely. Ask for the “Quilt Gardens Tour Package.” You’ll save 20 percent.

The Quilts Garden Tour runs through September, 2009.

Electric Trucks are going to be manufactured in Nappanee

We just read some exciting news that could have a great effect on our Nappnee Inn: Governor Mitch Daniels aligned with executives from Electric Motors Corporation (EMC) and Gulf Stream Coach to announce the companies’ partnership and plans to begin electric vehicle production in Wakarusa and Nappanee. EMC, “which develops and manufactures electric power drive systems for electric and hybrid vehicles, will partner with RV manufacturer Gulf Stream Coach to produce the first light-duty electric pickup truck. Together, the companies plan to invest more than $80 million on building renovations, machinery and equipment to site manufacturing facilities in Wakarusa and Nappanee and potentially create more than 1,600 jobs by 2012.” (source).

Nappanee has always been a land of coexisting contradictions; now we will be building electric pickup trucks amongst the Amish, who do not use any electricity!

“You can’t keep a great workforce and a great business environment down for long,” the Governor was quoted saying, “Every trip starts with a single step, but this is a huge step on the way back to the prosperity we’ve always associated with Elkhart County.”

We are excited to be a part of this exciting new trend, and feel proud to be creating new jobs and commerce in our community.

Gulf Stream Coach could increase its workforce by up to 1,200 jobs, which would include recall of some displaced workers. The company will utilize one of its existing dormant plants in Nappanee for assembly operations.

Additionally, the article indicated that the IEDC (Indiana Economic Development Corporation) will provide Nappanee officials with a $75,000 grant to purchase & build with fiber-optic infrastructure improvements for the proposed facility. The Town of Wakarusa and the City of Nappanee will consider additional tax phase-in for the project.”We are thrilled to have the opportunity to showcase Elkhart County and the towns of Wakarusa and Nappanee in a new and more inventive light. We are building upon the strengths of our entrepreneurism, innovation and green vehicle technologies, to invigorate our existing mix of truck component, RV and leisure vehicle industries.” said Dorinda Heiden-Guss, president of the Economic Development Corporation Elkhart County.

The Homespun Country Inn is also looking forward to an upgrade; keep your eyes peeled for a new web site design. It is a whole make-over for us, and we are excited for the launch of our Nappanee lodging site.

Our Nappanee Inn was built in 1902, and the historic charm and ambiance of the house will become apparent as soon as you walk in! Much of the house has the original stained and leaded glass windows from over 100 years ago.The historic nature of the inn continues in your room, where you will find antiques, rich wood furnishings and handmade quilts. All of our rooms have private bathrooms, a TV with cable & VCR/DVD and wi-fi.

Come join us for Breakfast!

What other Nappanee Hotels can offer all this?

Of course every morning you stay at our Nappanee Lodging, you will enjoy a full breakfast by candlelight in our dining room. And although we are a romantic place, we also have a room with two twin beds, for those who have business travel in Nappanee.

We hope to see you soon!

Bring your Sweetheart to the Heart of Amish Country.  Come and Embrace the Pace of Nappanee, Indiana where you can avoid the city crowds and enjoy a simpler and quieter time.   Enjoy Homespun Hospitality at our Inn with an overnight stay with private bath, cable tv and Wi-Fi.  Upon arrival at the Inn, enjoy an Inn Room Welcome Tray of prepared confections.

At 5:45 pm, you will drive 4 miles to the country farm of our Amish friends, the Millers.   You will be welcomed in their home for dinner,  have an opportunity to learn about their plain appearance and way of life, strong family values, and work ethics.  The dinner conversation just flows and you will arrive as a guest but leave as a friend. 

The next morning…although you probably think you’ll never be able to eat another bite…enjoy a full breakfast by candlelight here at the Inn.  We will also include a $25 gas card to fuel ”your buggy” and get you home safely.

Contact Dianne at the Inn at 800-311-2996.

Experience Homespun Hospitality at its finest!

Our Valentine Country Package is available all month long.

Nappanee, located in Northern Indiana, is the center of one of the largest Amish settlements in the United States. Nearly 2,500 Old Order Amish live and work in this area. Their lifestyle has a huge impact on the look and feel of our community. When you come to visit us at our Nappanee Lodging, we hope you will take the time to explore the Amish culture, which impacts our modern life in ways that will amaze you.

Amish Carriage. Photo courtesy of Ridgway on Flickr.

Our community was built on a heritage of woodworking, the railroad industry and the Amish work ethic. When you come to Nappanee, you will meet people who have grown up understanding the value of a hard days work and just how good relaxation and rejuvenation feels when it is deserved. We hope you will choose one of our unique and lovely rooms when looking for Hotels in Nappanee Indiana.

What can you expect when you visit Nappanee? Look forward to being embraced by a community that is committed to loving thy neighbor and values your unique company.

Explore the Amish Community while in Nappanee at the Amish Acres Historic Farm and Heritage Resort. This is an 80-acre farm where time essentially stopped over a century ago. Expose yourself to the Amish community. At Amish Acres Historic Farm visitors can explore the Amish way of life and American heritage through this 125-year-old farm. Come explore the historic 80-acre farm and experience the lifestyle of the Amish through guided tours, farm animals, restaurants, musical theater, craft demonstrations, and quaint shops.

The Round Barn Theater is a well-known aspect of the Amish Acres Historic Farm. This Barn is an original 1911 Amish Barn that has been dismantled, reconstructed and is now a state-of-the-art theater featuring over six different performances per year, including Plain and Fancy, the beautiful love story written by Joseph Stein. The Round Barn Theater is the national home for this musical, as well as the namesake stage for the author Joseph Stein. Currently, the Round Barn is playing “A Wonderful Life,” a musical theater version of one of the most inspirational films ever made.

If you would like to have a unique shopping experience while in Nappanee, the Borkholder Dutch Village is an amazing collection of craft and antique vendors. Expect to find Amish crafts as well as baked goods, collectibles, handcrafts and wood furnishings.

The food at the Dutch Kitchen is served with an Amish twist. You can also enjoy old-fashioned fountain drinks and ice cream treats!

Every Tuesday morning starting bright and early you can come to a nationally renowned antiques and crafts auction at the Dutch Village. Enjoy Amish breakfast and lunch while you watch traders and buyers bid on valued items, or get in on the action yourself!

Outside of the Dutch Village, there are over a dozen antiques shops in downtown Nappanee, within walking distance from our inn. We are also within walking distance of nice restaurants in downtown Nappanee. Please keep checking the Homespun Country Inn blog, the best of the Nappanee Hotels for more information on our unique community!

The Wakarusans (if that’s what they’re called!) make this amazing pumpkin tree every year in the middle of their town! It is about 20 to 30 feet tall and they use over 200 pumpkins to build it!

The Pumpkin Tree in Wakarusa

The town shows great fall form by adorning light poles and sidewalks with autumn decor. The shops are full of fun autumn and Halloween goodies to ease us into the winter months again.

It is a nice day trip and another example of the wholesome communities in our area and their great spirit!