Our name

Why we’re called Free State Storage.

We like the name. Lawrence was founded by Free Staters, and our family was among them.

The town

Lawrence was proudly founded in 1854 by settlers sent west by the New England Emigrant Aid Company. They came to make sure Kansas entered the Union as a free state, and people on both sides of that fight called them Free Staters. The town took fire for it, literally. It was sacked in 1856 and burned to the ground in 1863. Both times, Lawrence rebuilt, much of it in the limestone that still lines Massachusetts Street.

Kansas was admitted as a free state in January 1861. The name stuck to the town long after the fight was over. Free State is still the local shorthand for the place and the people. The brewery and the high school carry it, and now so do we.

The family

My family came to Lawrence during the territorial years, before statehood, as Free Staters. I grew up here. Our company, Midwest Storage Solutions, is a sixth-generation Kansas family business that runs storage across Kansas.

What that means for a storage facility

Not much, honestly, and that’s the point. A storage unit is a storage unit. What the name promises is that we’re from here, we answer the phone ourselves, and we intend to be around a long time. We open in Lawrence in October 2026.

Want to know when units open for reservation? Leave your email on the home page and you’ll get one note when they do.