|
The first sets of cabinets
were built with help from the students, using borrowed money and working nights in the school shop. As the project grew it first moved into Larion’s garage (which soon proved too small), spilled out into his backyard (the Northern Indiana weather soon brought an end to that!), and finally landed in a converted barn across town.
The barn housed Swartzendruber Hardwoods for five years, as the company grew and began to add permanent employees. There were some very lean
years early on - they tried building foosball tables for added income, but the games were played more by the employees than the customers! As Larion’s friends and acquaintances learned about his
woodworking efforts, he began to receive requests to build customized furniture, and the company moved in a new direction. The barn became so packed with wood and equipment that one machine had to be moved
to get to the next - it was clear a new facility was needed. Larion’s first historic building - the Goshen Buggy Top factory, where buggies had been constructed by Amish craftsmen for many years, was
Swartzendruber Hardwood’s new home. By this time the company’s largest business was custom furniture, each piece built by a single craftsman out of solid hardwood. Country Oak furniture was just coming into
vogue, and Larion had developed a new finish using transparent Danish oils rather than stains which was wildly popular. Round tables with up to seven leaves, Ladderback chairs, traditional bookcase units and
cannonball bed frames were best sellers during those years. In 1984 a new crisis roiled the waters - the city of Goshen decided to build a new office building and the Buggy Top Building was the site they
wanted. After lengthy negotiations the building was sold to the city, and Swartzendrubers had 6 months to find a building, renovate it, and relocate a large assortment of woodworking equipment. It seemed a
feasible task except for one major problem - there were no suitable buildings on the market. One structure had lost its roof a few years before and the floors were caving in, some were too small, and
one, the Chase Bag Factory, was 6 times too large. No one was very excited about building a sterile Pole Building for a showroom, but that was looking like the only option when Larion decided to take one
last look at the bag factory. The Old Bag Factory It was like walking back in time.
In the dead of winter, the cold whistled through the broken windows and barely illuminated the cave-like interior. The building had been deserted for years, its huge, echoing floors decorated with
pigeon dung and the oily dirt of three generations of machinery. But it had ‘potential’ - the perfect spot for a showroom was over here, the entrance could go on the south next to the old trolley
track, the shop down in the lower level - Larion took a deep breath and bought it. After removing tons of old pipes, rewiring, sanding 1/4” off the old hardwood floors, painting everything, working all
night, we moved in. The first month all the floors were still covered with plastic, all the showroom furniture was stacked in a corner, things didn’t work, customers didn’t know how to find us - but we
survived. The building was so huge we didn’t know what to do with it all - and that spawned the dream of the Old Bag Factory Complex. Gradually, space was rented out to other Artisans and Craftspeople until
today we have 20 individual shops in 25,000 square feet of retail space drawing over 120,00 visitors a year. Incredible Commissions Meanwhile, our custom furniture business took off. Our pieces became more and more complex, involving other disciplines such as hand carving, etched and leaded
glass, stone, Corian, inlay, fancy veneers and special finishes. We built Classic English libraries with Corinthian columns, bookcases that concealed hidden passageways, tables with 13 leaves, 25’ conference
tables, and whatever else people wanted. We reproduced antiques, paneled rooms with 30 foot ceilings, created original contemporary designs, and matched Grandma’s precious hutch so both
grandchildren could have it! We also produced many ‘normal’ pieces for individuals who weren’t happy with the quality of what they saw in the stores or just couldn’t find what they were looking for. Many of our pieces are in spectacular homes from Florida to Hawaii, but more are simply the especially prized possessions of schoolteachers, business people, farmers, engineers and others.
Shaker Furniture Over the years we’ve had many requests for ‘Shaker-style’
furniture. The first set we added to our catalog was the Shaker Breakfast set - a trestle table and chairs. We introduced it at a spring show, and it immediately became our best selling table. Over the years
we’ve broadened our line of standard designs considerable, adding a dining room set, a bedroom group and various living room pieces.
Today we have a large line of Shaker furniture available, each piece created or adapted for today’s lifestyles. We are still a custom furniture
company at heart, though, so any piece can be readily adapted to your needs or we can create something new for you. If you are lucky enough to
live in the Midwest (!) it will be worth your while to visit our showroom, just off I-80 in Northern Indiana. There you can touch the furniture, observe it being made, and see first hand what we have
accomplished over the last 27 years. |
became a custom furniture company. The founder, Larion Swartzendruber,
was a young High School shop teacher in his early twenties, supervising students building clock cases for class projects and working on hot rods in the school parking lot, when a local company approached him
about making wood cases for their high-end stereo equipment.
