Tucked in the rural areas of Waynesburg lies The Dutch House located on 111 Fordyce School Road. The Dutch House is an antique shop storing aged belongings with decades of stories to tell. The shop welcomes visitors with white framing, rustic screen doors and a faded sign across the top of the entryway that reads, “The Dutch House”. 

But the most welcoming figure isn’t the 150-year-old flooring or the chipped paint revealing the brick foundation. It is Pablo, a 1-year-old Corgi. With his fur patterns Pablo greets customers with enthusiastic sniffs and wagging curiosity.

After Pablo’s greeting, guests step into a time capsule filled with the scent of aged wood, a smell reminiscent of walking through grandma’s basement. Dust floats lazily in the sunlight slanting through the front windows casting a warm, golden haze over shelves crammed with relics of forgotten stories.

Walls are filled with chipped paint and warped ceilings that enhance the feeling of being stuck in a time capsule. The spiral staircase in the corner of the room welcomes guests while leading to sections of the house upstairs that withhold documentation of others’ lives. 

The shop doesn’t seem to follow a particular layout. Instead, it invites wandering. Narrow doorways wind between teetering bookcases and vintage dressers, each crowded with a mix of history and mystery. A sunlit room that holds decorations for gardening. Each room carries decades of stories with each individual section of the home having some sort of theme.

Following the path of the staircase in the main room, guests will find paintings along the wall detailing individual objects and sections of rural Greene County that hold memories. After the pictures are followed, guests have an option of entering the refurbished room atop the main room, or a narrow entryway leading into another themed room.

The back room, prior to rising into the curled staircase, leads into another room that features taxidermy and items that resemble items found in an old outdoorsman’s cabin. Each room includes stories that seem fictional, as well as objects that can be included in mythological folklore. The layout of The Dutch House sends every guest into a time machine which takes them to the beginning of these antique’s creation.

The Beginning of The Dutch House

Shop owner Savanna Christy bought the house six years ago after a lifelong fascination with the building, which sits across the street from her childhood home. Originally built in 1856 with additions added in the 1880s, the house features a mansard roof, an architectural detail from the 1880s that Christy especially loved. After purchasing the home, Christy started to have entrepreneurial ideologies of what the home could become. 

“Walking through the building for the first time, I remember asking myself, ‘What excuse do I have to buy this building?” Christy said. “After that, I thought it would be the coolest antique store.”

Christy had worries about the foundation of starting up her business due to financial situations and ultimate disbelief of others in trusting her business. She, at the time, had just gone back to school at West Virginia University and planned on receiving her bachelor’s degree while graduating in the same month.

“I risked literally everything,” Christy said. “To start a new business in the middle of COVID, my friends and family thought I was insane. After everything, I opened officially on April 4, 2021. I sold out half of my inventory on opening day.”

Christy’s passion and motivation to continue her goal in creating a product for people to enjoy coincides with many people’s desires to collect antiques.

Daniel Flynn, manager of Waynesburg University’s radio station, is a collector of antiques, and his admiration of antiques resonates from his grandparent’s lifestyle. Flynn mentioned his grandparents grew up during the depression era, which is where his interest in history came from as a child. He spoke on his initial thoughts of what it felt like when entering The Dutch House. 

“I walk in, and my initial thought is you are going back in time,” Flynn said. “To be reminded of architecture from the 18^th and 19^th centuries makes you feel like you are reliving in an era in which you have never experienced. It is almost as if you are in the shoes of what it felt like to live centuries ago.”

When working, Christy’s method of a sales-pitch is often trying to have customers envision how her antiques could improve or enhance an area within their home.

“I get really excited when I can envision setting space and decorating with it,” Christy said. “I try to give customers ideas of how something could look in their home. I think that’s what makes the space magical.”

Her attention to design extends to the layout of The Dutch House itself. Christy spent countless hours curating themes for different rooms in the house, each evoking a distinct mood or memory.

Her favorite feature is the curved staircase near the entrance and the paintings that line the wall alongside it — all created by her grandmother.

“They’re all local scenes, specific to Greene County,” Christy said. “She was a painter prior to having her first baby, then quit. But during COVID, she got bored and now does not stop painting.”

With The Dutch House being a semi-isolated house in the rural area of Greene County, Christy mentions how customer interactions and positive reviews reassures her.

“I’ve had people drive almost two hours to come shop here and that was most flattering,” Christy said. 

Christy has expanded her reach by shipping antiques to several states and hosting open markets in different parts of the country. Still, her focus remains on preserving the past and sharing it with others.

In a world obsessed with speed and disposability, this antique shop offers a gentle reminder that beauty can be found in the used and imperfect. Every rusted piece of signage or faded globe tell stories, waiting for someone new to listen.

For more information, go to visitgreene.org. Customers can also find updates on the Dutch House of Antiques Instagram page and on Facebook under “The Dutch House.”