centennial FlaShBack

The 1920s

This year marks the 100th anniversary of The Merchant Magazine, which was launched in the summer of 1922 as The California Lumber Merchant.

Like the lumber industry itself, which we strive every day to inform and serve, our own business is wholly built on relationships. For us, those are relationships with our valued readers as well as with our invaluable advertisers, who have helped to make this journey possible.

So as a prelude to a massive Centennial Special Issue in August, every month beforehand we will celebrate a different era of advertisers—showcasing the history of those companies that are still going strong all these years later and looking back at their very first advertisement in our publications.

• Bruce has been manufacturing hardwood flooring since 1884 and has been promoting them in our pages since our very first issue—in July of 1922.

Bruce later became a brand of Armstrong, was purchased by AIP in 2018, and last summer was acquired by AHF Products.

• Weyerhaeuser Co. began in Tacoma, Wa., in 1900 as a timberland owner, quickly growing into one of the world’s largest lumber manufacturers and distributors, and—since October 1922—our longest consistently-running advertiser.

• Pacific Lumber Co., forerunner of Humboldt Sawmill, started in 1908 and quickly became one of the largest producers in California’s Redwood Region. First advertising in January 1923, PALCO became a division of Maxxam Inc. in 1986, before being rescued from bankruptcy by Mendocino Redwood in 2008.

• White Brothers’ milling operation in Oakland, Ca., has always been a kindred spirit of The Merchant, with its founding coming exactly 50 years before our own. Consequently, ever since first advertising in January 1923, the company regularly ran milestone anniversary ads on our own anniversary—only 50 years apart.

• California Panel & Veneer Co., Cerritos, Ca., has been serving the woodworking industry since 1917, growing into the foremost distributor of wood panels and Formica brand laminates in Southern California. The company first joined forces with The Merchant in July 1923.

• Moore Dry Kiln Co.was founded in 1879 and became part of USNR’s Dry Kiln Division in 1969. It first promoted its dry kilns in our pages in April 1923.

• Andersen Windows & Doors was founded in 1903 by Danish immigrants to Wisconsin. First advertising with us in January 1923, Andersen is now headquartered in Bayport, Mn.; employs more than 12,000 at sites in North America and Europe; and produces window and door products under the Andersen, Renewal by Andersen, Weiland, EMCO and MQ brands.

• Simonds Saw traces its roots back to Abel Simonds, who partnered to form scythe-maker J.T. Farwell & Co., Fitchburg, Ma. Twenty years later, he went into business on his own, expanding into machine knives and mower and reaper sections.

By the time they first advertised in The Merchant in December 1924, the company had grown to over 2,200 employees and offices across North America. As the oldest cutting tool manufacturer on the continent, it now goes by Simonds International.

• Creo-Dipt Co., now known as PPG

Machine Applied

Coatings, began manufacturing solid color oil stain to prestain shakes and shingles in 1925 and immediately began advertising the fact, in February 1925. It became Olympic Stain Products in 1950 and was acquired by PPG in 1989.

• J.H. Baxter, San Mateo, Ca., has been a leader in preservative-treated forest products for four generations. The company was founded in 1896, incorporated in 1915, and first advertised with us in February 1925.

• Robbins Flooring began in 1894 as a Wisconsin-based installer and gradually expanded to manufacturing hardwood flooring, which it first promoted in The Merchant in November of 1927.

In recent years, the company has begun to specialize in hardwood and synthetic flooring for gym flooring, and is now known as Robbins Sports Surfaces.

• Bohnhoff Lumber Co. was launched by pioneering lumberman C.W. Bohnhoff in 1910 at the corner of 15th and Alameda in Los Angeles. First advertising in The Merchant in October of 1928, the company is still going strong five generations later.

• The Sisalkraft Co. of Chicago was the first and foremost producer of housewrap, which it began promoting with us in November 1929. Sisalkraft is now a brand of Henry Co.