From Aldie to Hamilton, a New Home for Mattingly’s

From Aldie to Hamilton, a New Home for Mattingly’s

By M.J. McAteer

Frequent travelers through Aldie may have noticed that a landmark went missing from the village last fall: The colorful collection of furniture that once perched on the lawn beside the firehouse.

Mattingly’s Amish Outdoor Furniture, a fixture for more than three decades, wasn’t a casualty of the pandemic. It simply decamped to Hamilton, after the property it had rented was put up for sale.

After a brief hiatus to regroup, Mattingly’s now is open on the main drag in Hamilton, right next to the town offices. Its new location doesn’t allow for an outdoor display of the inventory, making it easier to overlook than when it was in Aldie.

“You take a little hit on any move,” said owner Don Mattingly Jr., “but we have a huge customer base.”

Don Mattingly Jr.

Photo by M.J. McAteer

Everything being inside also “keeps everything a lot cleaner,” he said. His son, Jason, recently refurbished a sign that now hangs outside and should raise the business’s visibility.

Mattingly’s was started by Don’s father, Don Sr., in 1973. It began as a workshop focused on antique restoration, but “in our travels, we started seeing outdoor furniture in Pennsylvania and started bringing it in. It did better and better each year.”

The family eventually decided to go all in on the Amish.

Inside its 3,500-square-foot building, that “all in” includes a bevy of colorful Adirondack chairs in multiple manifestations, Mission-style chairs, rocking chairs, gliders and footstools. Prices range from $18 for a tree-bark birdhouse with an old metal roof to $876 for a large glider with dropdown cup holders.

A few pieces are made of pressurized wood, but that material has become hard to get and is less in demand since the arrival of poly lumber, made from recycled plastic. Poly is both durable and weatherproof and never requires painting or scraping.

Some might be surprised the Amish would embrace an artificial material, but “the English,” as the Amish call the non-Amish, have some mistaken ideas about the sect, Mattingly said. They may shun being connected to the grid--i.e., the outside world- -but many embrace modern tools and machinery, as long they’re powered on site.

No matter the material, getting enough stock has been challenging ever since Covid hit, increasing most people’s interest in making their stay-at-home time more comfortable. Material costs are up, too, by 30 percent, and wait times for delivery can stretch to 34 weeks.

“Everything now is what I can get in a reasonable time,” Mattingly said.

Compounding supply issues has been the preference of Amish builders in the eastern sector of Pennsylvania, like Lancaster County, for sending their furniture to large dealers out west.

Mattingly now has to rely on builders living north of Pittsburgh, near Lake Erie. They’re members of the ultra conservative Old Order Amish, who generally shun phones and electricity. Though he’s been buying from them for years, they require him to use a local “English” go-between for all transactions.

Twice weekly, Mattingly makes the 600-mile round trip north to pick up his merchandise. That’s a lot of road time. Add to that, his willingness to deliver furniture to as far away as Great Falls. But all that travel is worth it.

“When you deliver something, people are the happiest,” he said, “and I enjoy having satisfied customers.”

Mattingly’s is located at 55 E. Colonial Highway in Hamilton. It’s open Wednesday-Saturday, 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. and Sundays, 1 p.m. to 5 p.m.