The barn was abandoned by its next owners in 1953. An Amish minister, John Stoltzfus, and his wife Annie, packed up their car one day, leaving most of their possessions behind and moved to Portland OR where John went to Bible School. Years later, the structure was referred to as the ‘Hippie Barn’ when it became a hangout where local musicians like Daryl Hall, practiced and jammed.
Then, in 2015, a group of local plant lovers embarked on a journey to restore the barn to be a distillery with a restaurant and bar. Sitting on eight acres of lush Pennsylvania farmland, they invited friends and neighbors to participate in a community garden. The bonds that formed over their shared passion for plants forged a sense of community and the inspiration to create unique, innovative botanical spirits.
Returning to the barn’s botanical roots, it once again is a landscape to explore the awe-inspiring power of plants. Today, Botanery Barn is a distillery run by botanical experts, rooted in bringing the magic of plants to fruition.
About Botanery Barn
Located in Western Chester County, Pennsylvania, the first incarnation of today’s Botanery Barn was a dairy barn dating back to around 1825. It was owned by Jacob Maurer Yoder, a descendant of German immigrants. Jacob was influenced by an esteemed lineage of botanists, all from Chester County, who were some of the very first botanists in America. Among them was the author of the first catalog of native American plants, The American Grove (1785). Jacob, like other farmers in the region, benefited from the groundbreaking ideas put forth by these botanists about plant propagation, conservation, and scientific farming practices. The property stayed in the Yoder family for a century.