centennial FlaShBack

The 1930s

In honor of this year’s 100th anniversay of BPD’s sister publication, The Merchant Magazine, as well as the 40th anniversary of BPD, we are looking back each month, decade by decade, at the advertisers that have long supported us and are still growing strong to this day.

The 1930s were undoubtedly our publication’s most challenging period—we were still in our adolescence yet suddenly forced to navigate a decade-long Depression. With your support, we emerged stronger than ever.

• APA – The Engineered Wood Association members jointly began promoting Douglas fir plywood before they’d even officially formed the association. Their first collective ad—in May of 1931 in The Merchant Magazine pre-dated the founding of the Douglas Fir Plywood Association by two full years.

The group was renamed the American Plywood Association in 1964 and changed to its current moniker in 1994.

• California Saw & Knife Works was formed in San Francisco in 1886 and began targeting Merchant readers in June of 1934. The firm merged with Dan Lines and Roseburg Saw & Tool Co., and relocated to Oregon in 2016.

• Pacific Mutual Door was founded in 1912 in Tacoma by eight manufacturers to introduce Douglas fir millwork products to the East Coast. It grew to become the world’s largest manufacturer of DF plywood.

First advertising with its Northern California distributor, White Brothers, in September 1934, PMD is now based in Kansas City and since 2019 has been a division of HDI.

• Cedar Shake & Shingle Bureau began promoting members’ Certi-labeled cedar products in The Merchant in November 1935, back when it was known as the Red Cedar Shingle Bureau, having yet to merge with the Hand-Split Red Cedar Shake Association.

• CertainTeed was founded in Illinois in 1904 as General Roofing Manufacturing Co. changing in 1917 to CertainTeed from its slogan “Quality Made Certain, Satisfaction Guaran-teed.”

By the time it advertised in The Merchant in February 1937, CertainTeed was already the world’s largest manufacturer of asphalt shingles. Since 1988, it has been a wholly owned subsidiary of Saint-Gobain.

• Masonite announced the opening of its first California warehouse in March 1937, filled with its patented hardboard insulation, wallboard and flooring products. It didn’t enter the door business until 1972 and since 2001 has been owned by Premdor Corp.

• US Gypsum, Chicago, Il., has long been the nation’s largest distributor of wallboard and largest manufacturer of gypsum products. Its Sheetrock brand, which it began promoting in The Merchant in March 1937, has become synonymous with gypsum panels.

• Hyster Co. was founded in Portland, Or., in 1929 as the Willamette-Ersted Co., but by the time it began advertising in The Merchant in March 1937, the company had incorporated the nickname for its lift trucks (“Hysters,” derived from “Hoist’er”) into its formal business name.

• Haley Bros., now based in Buena Park, Ca., with four West Coast facilities, first advertised its doors to lumberyards in May 1937.

• Wolmanized Wood, now a brand of Arxada, was introduced to readers of The Merchant in May of 1938, back in the days before “pressure treated lumber” was a household phrase.

• T.M. Cobb. opened its millwork distribution center in Los Angeles in 1935—and let the world know about in in the pages of The Merchant in June of 1938. Today, the business is in its fourth generation, operating five manufacturing plants, four distribution warehouses, and five sales offices.

• National Oak

Flooring Manufacturers

Association, Memphis, Tn., promoted hardwood flooring produced by its 70 member mills as early as May 1937.

• Macklanburg Duncan of Oklahoma City, Ok., was formed in 1920 to introduce superior weatherstripping products, first under the Numetal brand, but soon expanding to Nu-Way weather strip, Nu-Art trim, Nu-Calk caulk, and Nu-Glaze glazing compound by the time it began advertising in The Merchant in January 1939.

The company was purchased by GE in 2000 and reorganized as M-D Building Products.