Late 1980s — It Begins
Our humble beginnings as a landscape design-build business, creating beautiful outdoor spaces throughout the region.
Mid to Late 1990s — Water Becomes Our Focus
As the business evolves, ponds, waterfalls, and water features become an increasingly important part of our work. We begin focusing on incorporating water into nearly every landscape project we design and build.
What started as one element of the landscape was becoming our specialty.
Early 2000s — The Pond Shop
The Pond Shop opens as our first pond retail concept store, located in a historic late-1800s barn on Pleasant Avenue in Dallastown.
The farm becomes a place where our growing experience designing and building water features comes together with retail, education, products, plants, and hands-on demonstrations.
2007 — The First Pondeminium
We host our first Pondeminium, a training event for pond contractors, at The Pond Shop.
For the event, we build a pond featuring an island with a Hogan’s Heroes-style tunnel running beneath the pond and through the waterfall—a memorable feature that becomes part of the history of the farm.
And it’s still there today.
Spring 2008 — Splash Supply Co.
The Pond Shop retail operation moves from the historic barn to a new shopping center on Lincoln Highway East, right next door to Stauffer’s of Kissel Hill, one of the region’s premier garden centers.
With the move, we debut our new name: Splash Supply Co.
The new location gives our growing retail business a conventional commercial storefront and begins a new chapter focused specifically on ponds, waterfalls, aquatic plants, fish, and everything needed to create and enjoy them.
November 2014 — A Place of Our Own
After more than six years as a tenant on Lincoln Highway, that era comes to an end as we purchase our first property of our own.
The move gives Splash the opportunity to create something that couldn’t be done in a conventional leased retail space—a destination built around experiencing ponds, waterfalls, plants, fish, and landscapes.
Late 2014 / Early 2015 — Toronita Street
Retail operations transition fully to Toronita Street in York.
Over the following years, the property develops into much more than a store, combining retail with outdoor ponds, waterfalls, displays, education, and the hands-on experience that increasingly defines Splash.
September 2019 — The Fire
In September 2019, a devastating fire destroys the building at Toronita Street.
The fire marks one of the most difficult moments in Splash’s history, destroying the building along with decades of accumulated business records and history.
Fall 2019 – Spring 2020 — Rebuilding
Rebuilding begins almost immediately.
Through the fall and winter, the Toronita property is rebuilt and Splash recovers from the fire, reopening the rebuilt facility in spring 2020.
The experience reinforces an idea that had been developing for years: the future of Splash needed to be more than a traditional retail store.
2022 — The Powder Mill Vision
In 2022, we select and purchase a significantly larger property at 1941 Powder Mill Road in York. Mark begins sketching out every detail of the gardens and interior spaces with attention paid to the customer experience. Every outdoor featured in its own space to ensure visitors can relax and enjoy the gardens. An entirely new Splash begins to take shape—designed from the ground up to become a one-of-a-kind destination for people who love ponds, waterfalls, landscapes, and gardens, bringing together the retail, education, inspiration, and hands-on experiences that had evolved over the previous four decades.
2023 — Building the Gardens
Site construction begins at Powder Mill.
The entire property is extensively regraded, and construction begins on the large ponds and water features that will become the heart of the new location.
Rather than building a store and adding displays around it, the property begins taking shape as an integrated landscape where visitors can experience ponds, waterfalls, and gardens at real-world scale.
2023 — 2024 Going Vertical
Contractors are selected, Permits acquired, and vertical construction of the new building begins. While building construction struggles to progress on the original time line, the development of the surrounding ponds, waterfalls, gardens, landscapes, and infrastructure is starting to take shape.
Throughout 2024, the new Splash continues to emerge.
Decades of ideas and experience from The Farm, Lincoln Highway, and Toronita are brought together on one property as the building, gardens, ponds, waterfalls, displays, and retail operation move toward completion.
January 2025 — The Doors Finally Open
After nearly three years of planning, development, and construction, the doors finally open at 1941 Powder Mill Road.
The new property becomes home to the region’s largest pond and waterfall Design Center and Display Gardens—and one of the most extensive retail gardens of its kind in the country.
Here, visitors can experience completed ponds, waterfalls, and water features surrounded by thoughtfully designed landscapes—seeing, hearing, and experiencing the possibilities before deciding what they’d like to create at home.
More than a new location, Powder Mill brings together decades of experience, ideas, and evolution into one destination—and begins the newest chapter in the Splash story.
And Back Where It Started…
The move from The Pond Shop in 2008 wasn’t the end of the original farm’s story.
Today, the Pleasant Avenue farm has evolved into the headquarters of Splash Plants, our wholesale aquatic plant growing operation.
Multiple greenhouses are now home to thousands upon thousands of waterlilies and other aquatic plants grown for retailers and contractors across the United States.
The same property that helped launch Splash’s pond retail business more than two decades ago continues to be an active part of what we do today.
And yes—the original Hogan’s Heroes pond from that first Pondeminium is still there for all to see.
From a landscape company in the late 1980s, to The Pond Shop, Lincoln Highway, Toronita Street, and ultimately Powder Mill Road, each location represents another step in the evolution of Splash—and our growing focus on bringing people together around water.