Amish Garage and Shed Builder Prepares for Big Move to Morgantown PA Amid Mixed Emotions

August 16, 2017 - Over the past year, Sheds Unlimited, an Amish Shed and Amish Garage Builder in Lancaster County, PA, has been working on a new facility in Morgantown, PA. Although it means leaving the fourth generation family farm, this expansion will pave the way to serve their growing list of customers better.

Several decades ago, Stephen Stoltzfus Sr. recognized the need to provide a healthy, hard working environment for his five energetic sons. His Amish-Mennonite heritage encourages hard work and manual labor. The family farm is an excellent place for father and sons to learn to work with their hands alongside each other. This led to them becoming a well recognized Amish Sheds and Amish Garages builder in Lancaster County, PA

For nearly 25 years, Sheds Unlimited has enjoyed working on the fourth generation family farm situated in the heart of Lancaster County's Amish country. Demand for storage sheds and prefab car garages increased year over year and their desire to provide customers with customized sheds and garages in a more timely manner has created the need for developing a new manufacturing facility. The team feels a sense of loss and excitement as they prepare to leave Gap, PA, and move to their new shed and garage builder facility about 15 miles north in Morgantown, PA.

The company story humbly starts with a pony and a homemade cart, used to transport materials to the farm. The Sheds Unlimited website tells the story of how the oldest sons, along with their father began building dog boxes before they could drive a car! Then the brothers delivered those dog boxes with the pony cart to a nearby storage shed business to be sold.

It wasn't long until they began building a few storage sheds on the second floor of the dairy barn. Unfortunately, the township was not overly fond of the idea as building sheds and garages on a farm in the middle of Amish land was outside the local zoning ordinances.

Due to these difficulties, the developing shed business was moved nine miles away from the farm to Honey Brook, PA, and set up in Uncle Ivan's old tobacco shed. There, the company offered Amish built garages and sheds for sale direct to consumers and a few select dealers. After a few years, the township began to show some possibilities of allowing them to manufacture back in their hometown.

Salisbury Township in Lancaster County was still very farm centered at the time. More and more farmers were in need of extra income to support their farming operations and pushed for changes in zoning to setup small, home business ventures. Stephen Sr. tells of going to the township meeting where the farmers were asking for ideas. He stood up in that meeting and asked for permissions for a 4,000 square foot manufacturing space on the family farm. It wasn't long until the zoning ordinances changed for Salisbury Township farmers and Stephen received permission for what he had requested.

The Stoltzfus family was soon hard at work building a manufacturing facility on the farm. The launch of this next phase of building Amish Sheds and Amish Garages was a welcome transition. Even though times were still tough and the dairy farm faced an uncertain future, their family could now wake up in the morning, milk the cows, and then head to work in the storage shed facility right there on the farm.

Initially, the shed business was simply extra income to support life on the struggling farm. Milk prices fluctuated up and down, and when prices were low, keeping the cows meant taking funds from the shed business to maintain the dairy farm. It was a somber day when, after much deliberation as a family, large cattle trucks hauled off the herd of cows which had been a part of family life since they moved on the farm in 1976.

Growth in outdoor sheds and prefab car garages continued slowly after the cows left the farm. During the economic downturn, Chris (the middle son who now owns E-Impact Marketing and manages the Sheds Unlimited internet marketing plan), decided to build a small website and begin promoting sheds and garages online. Shockingly, this move into online marketing ended up changing the direction of the company substantially. Their success with internet marketing surprised them all.

"Almost immediately, we started making sales through online marketing leads," says Chris, "and the growth has continued ever since." When the second son, Steve Stoltzfus Jr., returned from working eleven-years with Christian Aid Ministries in Romania, he took over the helm of running the business and Chris focused on the online marketing program.

All the team work paid off, and the company saw double digit growth year after year for nearly ten years. During this time, the company went from a handful of local Amish and Mennonite employees building simple buildings to a team of more than 30 people building complex shed and garage designs. Growth for the Amish Shed company came through an expanding line of sheds for sale direct from the manufacturing facility. Slowly, they added more and more shed design options, as well as specialized buildings for pool houses, run-in sheds, potting sheds and more.

Amish built garages became a growing choice of customers. Detached and prefab one, two, three and four car garages expanded into more complex designs including attic and loft garages, luxury garages, garages with lifts, and garages with apartment space. Every week, their large range of shed and garage collections are viewed by thousands of visitors on their website.

Consistent growth in the Sheds Unlimited line of products and increased customization of those buildings have inspired the big move that is now just around the corner. As of this writing, the team is eagerly waiting for the occupancy permit that will officially launch the move to their new facility in Morgantown.

While the Stoltzfus family is very grateful for the new facility, there is a keen awareness of a new chapter that is beginning for Sheds Unlimited. Some in the family feel a sense of loss as the hustle and bustle of trucks, fork lifts, and employees prepare to leave the family farm which is now home to Stephen Stoltzfus Sr.'s grandchildren…the fifth generation to live on the homestead.