Preserving the past for future generations.

Come visit our 1840's era barn, where you will feel like you've stepped back 100 years in time. That's why our massive, 32,000-square-foot retail store contains four pre-Civil War era buildings where you can learn about organic gardening, oil lamp restoration or wood stove maintenance. Museum-quality antiques line the walls and thousands of products you thought they quit making years ago fill the shelves.

Jay Lehman founded the store in 1955 to serve the local Amish and others without electricity. His vision was to preserve the past for future generations. "I was concerned that some day the Amish would not be able to maintain their simple ways of life because these products would no longer be available," he said. His goal was, and still is, to provide authentic, historical products to those seeking a simpler life.

Because Jay had the foresight to look to the past for his business, he turned a one-room country hardware store into a low tech superstore. Think about it: in 1955 Disneyland opened its doors. Baseboard heat and huge automobiles were all the rage. Rebel Without a Cause was the top film; Elvis Presley was introduced to screaming fans; and the television replaced the radio as the entertainment medium of choice (Leave It to Beaver, by the way, was the top show).

It was in this climate that Jay decided to carry products that his Amish customers needed to preserve their way of life. He thought, rightly so, that one day no one would be making butter churns, apple peelers and drying racks. So, he was going to craft, stock and sell these generation-spanning products.What started as a tiny hardware store employing Jay's father, brother and sister today has become the world's largest purveyor of historical technology.

Lehman's ships old-fashioned, non-electric merchandise all over the world through our catalogs and website. Our diverse customer base includes missionaries and doctors working in developing countries; homesteaders and environmentalists living in remote areas; people with unreliable electricity living on islands and mountains; second home owners, hunters, fishers and cabin dwellers; the 'chronically nostalgic,' and even Hollywood set designers looking for historically accurate period pieces.

If you think it isn't made anymore, check with Lehman's before you give up. And next time you're in Ohio's Amish Country, stop by our store on the square in Kidron. We'd love to show you around.