"The Horne of ldeos"

So he associated himself with Mr. Owen S. Kirig and Mt. J. H. West and organized the West-King-Peterson l,umber Co. and built their new modern plant in San Diego, facing Atlantic Avenue, the main boulevard that leads into the city and overlooking San Diego Bay. "From the outset," says Mr. Peterson, "we laid out and built this plant with the idea that after all in this glorious state of California where the population of our communities doubles every ten years, the retail building material merchandising business is the greatest industry we havb. Newcomers to California are all potential home builders, or home building minded. Therefore, we can see no reason why the lumber merchant should have a woodshed for an office. or bury it behind a pile of boards. We believe this greatest industry of California is therefore just as deserving of exhibiting its merchandising as is the furniture business, and surely the furniture business could not expect to thrive if it used the slipshod methods. The thing that concerns us most is the potential building business of our community, and after satisfying ourselves on that point, (which one can easily do now by erqamining the census record), we determined to build the moSt modern merchandising plant that we could conceive right here in San Diego, and furthermore, distribute from here an entire line of buitding materials, rather than sticking to the 'provincial last' of the lumbermen-'Only wood and wood products'."

In November, 1928, Mr. I. Harold Peterson sold out his lumber interests in Tolelo, Ohio, and came to sunny California with the thought that he would enjoy the surishine and play for the rest of his natural life, but as Mr. Peterson says: "I found that this did not work. There is something about this old lumber game of ours which makes us 'rvish we were back into it after 1ve get out, and after hanging around here for a year, I realiied that I missed the association of my friends in the lumber business. and that the creative job oi the modern retail lumber merchant is after all worthwhile."

After buying the property which is located on one of the city's busiest thoroughfares, they laid out a yard that was adequate to handle the business they desired, and it occupies two and one-half acres. "We are not believers in old lumber piles," Mr. Peterson says, "here in San Diego where we have one or two boats tied up at our docks each week, the question of supply is not s.iiou., and we dedicated ourselves to a policy of keeping a minimum stock on hand and turning it as rapidly as possible. In the case of millwork and building materials other than lumber, this is easily done through the installation of a perpetual inventory keyed to a maximum and minimum supply that actually works and guarantees us a maximum turnover."

The office building, which also houses a paint and hardware building, is of French Normandie design with the roof covered with Creo-Dipt shakes. A fine mill was built and has been which is equipped with all the latest ball bearing, direct electrically driven machinery.

"It has always been my contention in this modern merchandising game," states Mr. Peterson, "that the sales promotion end of the business should have a distinct department separate from all others. It should be housed, if you please, in a building all its own, and the empldyees therein devote their entire time to this phase of the work. just as the estimator, salesman, millmin, etc., have their own individual duties. If you mixthis department with your routine business the result will be "hodge-podge" that produces "hodge-podge" results. It has always been my idea that the work of the sales promotion department should be done by women, because to the women belong the honor of bringing into the building industry most of today's competition. It is her dornand for labor-saving devices, built-in features, period mantels, multiple panel doors, etc., that have changed the home from a mass of jig-saw mill work to the up-to-date vista of beauty that it is today."

Andout of these ideas came the "Home 6f lds25"-2 magnificent builders' display-built onthe opposite side of the street from the office, paint and hardware store, and is devoted entirely to sales promotion and operated by women. The "Home of Ideas" was designed by a San Diego architect, nationally known for hisability to produce authentic Spanish designs which exemplifies California's inimitable building beauty. There are eight rooms in the "lfome of Ideas," all different in design and they range from early American to modernistic, and there is even a room paneled in true American style, showing the beautiful effects that can be obtained here in our own state without going elsewhere, through the use of California Redwood. There is a room with a studio ceiling where the home builder can sit in an easy chair before an attractive fireplace and look over plans and read books and magazines that are furnished from the Home Builders library. Or should the home builder desire, there is a woman who is skilled in designing ready to assist in the layout of room and the type of architecture.

"We do not plan homes, nor do we build them," says Mr. Peterson, "but we have instituted a service with our 'Home of Ideas' that is of material assistance to the home builder before the actual planning or construction starts."

"l{ow about the results ?" To this question Mr. Peterson states, "this is rather early to give them to you, because we have only operated a little over six months, and 'Oh Boy,'what a fine six months they have been, starting right on the heels of a financial panic,_ and the wave of pessimism sweeping all the country, the likes of which neither you nor I have ever faced before. I have, however, faced ten hard years of promoting the lumber business along these lines back east in a community that was relatively overbuilt compared with this, and those ten years back where competition was hot, (Don't worry about that-we have no patent on competition here in California) convinces me that these methods will pay because people back east are hard headed and not home minded like they are out here."

"So I am going to let you in on a secret," says Mr. Peterson, "and in doing so I know you will not keep it because you are a newspaper man. Therefore, I do not care, and you can tell anybody you like that in the face of all these conditions that are existing today, the WestKing-Peterson Lumber Company, right now, operate on a profit and every month are enjoying a steady increase in their volume, and furthermore, we are not doing it by

It for neta ideas in this "Home of ldea('. In ad.of built-in conaeniences, color schemes and tyfes a "Home Builders Library," shoun abozte, is ofrered to uisitors. cutting the price of our competitors. In other words, we are creating our own business and nottrying to take it away from them by means of cutting a price."

The officers of the West-King-Peterson Lumber Company are: J. Harold Peterson, President; J. H. West, VicePresident; Owen S. King, Vice-President and General Manager. Mr. Peterson was formerly manager of the Hixon-Peterson Lumber Company, operator of yards in Ohio and Michigan. Owen S. King has been identified with the retail lumber business in San Diego for the past eighteen years, and was formerly superintendent of the Chas. R. McCormick Lumber Co. plant at San Diego. J. H. West is connected with the oil industry and operates a number of oil wells in the state of Texas.