The Western Hardwood Lumber Company Great Hardwood Institution at Los Angeles

Beautiful hardwoods are always a source of interest to the public, and doubly so when tlrey are rare and valuable woods gathered fronr the far corners of the Globe.

A firm which has kept abreast of the times in the business of supplying choice hardwoods for the interior decoration of Southerrr California homes and business buildings, and for use in the manufacture.of high class furniture and cabinets, is the Western Harrlwood Lumber Company, located on a six acre tract of land extencling from Fifteenth to Sixteenth Street, betu.een Alameda Street and Santa Fe Avenue, in the heart of the close in industrial clistrict of Los Angeles.

The Western Hard.w,ood Lumber Company conrrnenced business in Los Angeles in a modest way on limited capital just t\4,enty years ago, and through the energy, integrity and resourcefulness of its officers has built up what is said to be the largest hardvvood business in the lvestern part of the United States, and has played a great part in stirnulating the use of hardwoods for interior finish and the development of furniture manufacturing in the great pacific Southwest.

A combination of fortuitous circumstances gave the 6rst real impetus to the extensive use of hardwoods aud the subsequent rapid development of furniture manufacturing in Los Angeles. In 1907 a tramp steamer, loaded with two million feet of oak logs from Japan, found itself on the Pacific Coast without a customer for its cargo. The logs had been ordered by an Oregorr firm, but before the arrival of the ship the purchaser's afiairs became involved to suclr an extent that hc could not carry out his contract, and the ship proceeded down the coast looking for a buyer for its cargo.

None was found until Los Angeles n-as reached, when the owners of the Western Hardwood Lumber Conrparry, sensing the possibility in those oak logs, but with neither a place to store them, nor machinery lvith which to saw thenr, ancl faith in the future as their principal capital, nevertheless acquired possession of the logs and set about to transfom them into lumber. A piece of land was secured at the coast, a snrall circular saw mill borrowed from a Los Angeles nrachinery house, while modern machinery was being ship- ped from the east, and a beginning was made on what later developed into an extensive and profitable business.

This Japanese oak r,r'as the first lorv-priced hardwood marketed on this coast, and the means of enabling a few small factories to conlmence the mauufacture of hardwood furniture, thus establishing an industry I'hich has since grown to immense proportions. As the buying public demauded other woods in furniture and house finish, the Western Hardwood Company promptly met this demand by going into our middle rvestern and southern states for gum, rvalnut, cfierry, birch, beech, basswood, oak and maple; to Central America and Mexicp for mahogany, Juana Costa and Jenizero; to Russia for Circassian walnut; to Hawaii for koa, to Burma for teak, to Brazil for rosewood, to Australia for iron bark, and to the Philippine Islands for the many species of beautiful hardwoods with which those islands abound.

It is an education in hardrvoods to risit the offices ancl vards of the Western Hardu'ood Lumber Company. Upon entering the rnain office rvhere are located the order clerks, bill clerks, and other employes who handle routine matters, you find a spacious room' excellently lighted, rvith panelling, coulrters, etc., in quartered white oak.

Opening off this roonl are, a private room for salesmen, firlished iu figrrred red gum, the secretary's office itl Anrerican black walnut, magnitude of the stock carried. Here are to be foundr, in adclition to the woods already mentioned, ash, hickory and poplar, used largely by the automobile body builders; apitong a-nd lumbayao fronr the Philippines, used for the same purposes' but lower prrced: sugar and white pine, white cedar and spruce, used by the sash and cioor manufacturers and in the furniture and cabinet tradesi oak and birch from Japan; alder from Washington and Oregon; aromatic red cedar from Tennessee, for chests and lining in clothes closets, and other less known varieties of domestic and foreign t'oods.

One large building houses the most extensive stock of slicecl. sarvn and rotary cut veneers orl the Pacific Coast. These veneers vary from the thickness of paper to a quarter inch thick.

All the sawll velleers are manufactured on tlre preurises' the rnachinery for this purpose being under the supervision ol J. H. Williams. who has cut hardwood veneers continuously for over.fifty years. It is claimed for him that he could not be bribed to trrake anything but a perfect veneer' and because of this standard lvhich he has set, the products of his saw command a prelniunr in the verreer market. This is,his fifteenth year with the Western Hardwood Lumber Compalty.

In addition to the vetreer saw, therc are machines for planing' ripping, resawing, edging and trimming lumber, and a battery of six large <lry kilns where millions of feet of lumber are dried yearly, a very necessary precautiou to iusure the best results in the 6nal use of hardwood lumber. This department is presided over by C. B. Su'eney, rvho has had many years of experience and is atr authority on kiln drying methods.

Vieu of Main Oftce

a roonl fc,r the stettograplters itr Philippine trtaltogattl.' dent's office in Tabasco nraltogauy, rvith fnrrtittrre ilr s'oorls to match the fir:ish.

On the secoud floor are located the bookkeepers roonls, dining roonr arrtl kitclren for the enrplol'es.

Passing into the 1'artl a visitor is bervil<lerctl b1' an<l tlre presieach room of roonr and rest the variety and

There are acres of sheds filletl with kiln dried lumber, all arranged ncatly and conveniently il bins to expedite the prompt and accurate filling or orders, ar-rd other acres covered with piles of lumber seasoning preparatory to goillg into the kilns' The gerreral supervision of the yarcl is etrtrusted to G. G. Graf and the neat and orderly appearance of the stock bears evidence of his rvatchful and critical e)'e.

A large warehouse is filled with harchvood flooring in all the standard thickrresses, widths and grades.

A stock of six million to seven million feet of lumber. veneers and (Continued on Page 38) flooring is alu'ays five employes is constantly passirrg orr hand, and a force of one l.run<lred an<l t$'entyrequired to handle the large volume of lumber ' in and out of the yard.

The officials of the Wcstern Hardrvood I-unrber Co. are D. J. Cahill, president and general manager, B. W. Bryne, secretary an<l sales manager. antl L. C. Spaulding, treasurer and office nranager.

Interesling,Scenes Around Enormous Plant of Wes'ern Hardwood Lum',er Compang

Lumbermen's Initiative Ordinance Carries in Berkelev Election

/-.Ot the. sPecial election helcl in the City of Berkelev rin California cities rvill follou'Berkelel,'s exan.rple l>1'requiring ,11 I'Iay 6. the_ original shingle initiative orclinance u,hich-rvas a r.ertical grairr shingle u,ith a rrrirrinrum-thicknes.s of, 15 sponsored_ by the lttmbernren carried bv a majoritv of 2t3ft7 trt2,and r,r'ith rust nail specifications. as they feel that such votes' The alternative shingie orclinancc that t'as orr the specifications l'ill assure a ltetter re6f at litile or n6 acl4ecl ballot 'ivas defeate<l l)) c,\'er 9000 r otes. The nerv orclirr- cost. By the a<lo1>tion of the rreu, orclirrance on l{ay 6, alce_repeals the roofirrg ordinance ihat l'as adopted lrr. he stateil that the orclinance cann()t l>e repealecl c,r mtclithe City C_ouncil last October. fied except thr'ough a direct vote of tl-re people.

R. F. Hammatt. chairman of the l-rrml>ermen's Com- The Lturbernritr's Comrnittee in chafrc irf the iierkelev mittee, states that the nerv orclinance raises the standarcl election n'as rnatle of as fcillon's: Il . I.'. ilanrrnatt, Califor:- of lvood shingles to be usecl ancl cails for a strictlv edge- nia Reclt'oorl .\ssociation, Chairr.nan; (.. Stou'ell Smith. grain, all heart, with no clefect. ancl they shall be at least Califorrria \\rhite & Sugar Pine ;\ssociation; ancl -A,rthur 5 to 2 in thickness at the butt. It also calls for slreathins Bevan, Assistant Secretary of the Shf ngle Branclr of the to be laid somer,vhat closer than heretofore used and also West Coast l,rrrnbermen's Association. \{r. Hamr.natt sar-s rgquires t-h.e tlse of rust proof nails. N{r. Hammatt savs that much of the credit is due to -T. \f. Hotchkiss u'l.ro that the shi-ggle manufacturers express the hope that other tool< au active interest in the nratter.

J. FI. J. spending

SAVIDGE Savidge, oi a ferv clays

A BAY DISTRICT VISITOR

Klamath Falls, Oregon, has been in the tsay District on bttsiness mat-

N.

"Let Us Handle Your Sash and Door GrieP' BemiS and COWan Sash and l)oors 'G!€'ISOUTH LOS ANGELES HOO'IER.STREET CALIFORNIA Phone Univ. 2156.

f,umber Co. and at the \\restem States I-um- o o

AND STOCK

I Capacity l(X)O Doorr Drly. 0regon Door Go. PORTLAND, ORE. FLETCHER & FRAMBES LOS ANGELES Exclurive Representativer in Califofida and Arizone and Arizona DOORS AI.SO FIR MOULDING