Question: What’s missing with this circa 1822 house in New Harmony, Indiana? Read on for the answer!

Members of New Harmony lived in clapboard houses, like the David Lenz house pictured above. That in itself was impressive considering in 1814 most homes were rough-cut log cabins.

Though there were log cabins in the settlement, they were mostly used as temporary shelters until clapboard homes were ready. Today, furnished, period cabins can be found on the historic site and serve as teaching tools for the many school children who take field trips to the area.

In accordance with their beliefs of equality for everyone, no one in the society owned property. When a family joined the community, they were assigned a house with a plot of land to grow a garden.  When single people joined, they lived in community houses, with men and women living separately and remaining celibate. The Harmonists had many similarities to the religious sect of the Shakers.

The David Lenz house was built between 1819 and 1822. The Lenz family emigrated to the United States from Germany in 1804 and moved to Indiana with other Harmonists from Pennsylvania. This two-story house is a typical Harmonist single-family dwelling, built mainly with square timber logs of poplar or oak.

So, what’s the answer to the question of what is missing on the house? No front door!

Doors were built on the side of houses in New Harmony in order to reduce the dust and debris that would blow in from the horse traffic on the street! It makes sense and I wonder why more homes weren’t designed that way!

For more pictures of houses in New Harmony, visit Shine’s Pictures.

Up next: New Harmony’s Labyrinth, Roofless Church and Markerless Cemetery!! Intriguing!

Start at the beginning of this New Harmony Series!

See the beautiful The Biltmore at Christmastime!!