Happy Anniversary! Byram Self-Storage Celebrates 20 Years of Helping People with Their 'Stuff'

How much stuff have you accumulated over the past 20 years?

Now just imagine how much stuff that would be if you had a giant warehouse to put it all in.

On Higland Street in Port Chester, the folks at Byram Self Storage have been helping local residents store the prized valuables, cherished family items — and plain old stuff — for 20 years.

On Saturday, Byram Self Storage celebrates its 20th anniversary with a party that includes free refreshments, music, food and family fun — face painting, a bouncy house, raffles, giveaways — from noon to 4 p.m. (if it rains, the party will be on Sunday).

Byram Self Storage is located in a building dating to the 1880s that was the site of the Abendroth Brothers Foundry. At what is now the main office of Byram Self Storage, dispatchers for the foundry once went about their daily business.

During World War II, EMCO Porcelain Enamel Company operated at the site, making ammunition boxes, ship lockers and relay boxes for the U.S. Post Service. After the war, the company made steel cabinets for homes. Also in the building for many years was Bantam Toys and another toy manufacturer.

Mortimer Patchen, whose mother and father formed the EMCO Porcelain Enamel Company in 1938, created Byram Self Storage in 1992. During the EMCO days, his family acquired all of the land and buildings that had been owned by Abendroth Brothers — which went from Willett Avenue to Highland Street and Abendroth Avenue to the Byram River.

Patchen's children later joined him in the business, which is run by Robin Klein, Jeffrey Patchen, Kip Patchen and Mortimer Patchen.

The Byram Self Storage building, which has more than 900 storage units of various sizes, has undergone a facelift since its factory days and has been repainted red, white and blue.