Manufacturing is believed to have begun following the First World War. It started in a rear building of the former Henry Slutter Carriage Shop on Ridge avenue, across from the Ambler Presbyterian Church. Adelos Gorton is listed as president of the company, with Luther Fretz an associate. Ambler and Fort Washington boys found summer employment at the factory.

During the school year they would stop after school to pick up toys and a set of paints and brushes. The toys, presumably lead figures, were painted at home, and taken back to the factory for payment.

By 1920, the Toy Factory had moved to Park Avenue, renting a portion of Harvey Dager's Park Avenue Storage & Warehouse. This was located just south of Lindenwold Avenue and near the terminus of Euclid Avenue.

A large dynamo, installed to supply power, operated ten wood-working machines. By Spring of 1920 the company was reporting a busy season, with patented wooden toys and chess boards popular in their line.

By summer of the same year, a change in their product line occurred when porch enclosures, window screens and screen doors were being advertised. Little is known of their activities after 1920.

But the building they occupied on Park Avenue has a much more interesting history than the Toy Factory. It was originally a blacksmith shop on the grounds of Ambler Park Fair Grounds, established in 1870 by the Montgomery County Agricultural Society. The blacksmith serviced the popular half-mile racetrack on the grounds. In 1888 the Fair Grounds were sold to John E. Turner, well-known in the horse-racing and training field. Turner was interested in acquiring the racetrack and related buildings, and called his facilities the Ambler Driving Park.

Sometime during Turner's ownership of the racetrack, Albert Shaw purchased the old blacksmith shop, moving it to his lot on Park Avenue about 1892. Incidentally, the name for Park Avenue came from the fact that it was one of the roads leading onto the grounds of old Ambler Park.

It was in this building that Shaw established his Carriage Works. Here he acted as an agent for the Columbia brand carriage, as well as repairing all others. Once again the sound of a blacksmith could be heard within the walls of the old shop, as blacksmith Benjamin Meyers became associated with Shaw.

Albert Shaw ceased operation of his carriage business around 1902, perhaps because the popularity of the automobile was increasing. He sold the property to Harvey Dager, a local antiques dealer in the warehousing and moving business. Dager, who had been using the upper floors of the Ambler Gazette Building for his storage business, divided the second floor of his new building into two sections for furniture storage. On the first floor he added thirteen stalls for use in his livery business. Soon after, he added a new building out to the sidewalk, more than doubling his space. With the new building and renovations complete, the entire property received a fresh coat of paint by local painter August Scholz.

By 1922, Charles W. Gerhart, Sr. and his son Ross, also in the moving and storage business, were occupying the Park Avenue premises. Prior to this time, Gerhart had operated his livery stables on Butler Avenue, having come to Ambler around 1894. His first location was at the stables of Hotel Ambler Park. Next, he succeeded Alexander Niblock in the livery stable business on Butler Avenue near Ridge.

Gerhart remained on Park Avenue until the days of World War II. His successor, also a moving and storage company, suffered a major fire which destroyed the historic blacksmith shop and its attached buildings. The ruins remained for some time before being replaced by a small apartment house.