Sharing the Heritage Historic Pasadena
Lincoln Avenue Lumber and Mill, Inc.
Many of Pasadena's finest and oldest craftsman homes
are constructed of lumber that came from one of the area's oldest lumberyards,
Lincoln Ave Lumber and Mill, Inc. Founded at its present location in 1903
by J.C. Smith, the Smith Cash and Carry Sawmill at 1464 Lincoln had a mill
along with a sash and door department that provided windows and entries for
the houses going up in the early days of Pasadena. A local woman in her eighties
recently stopped by the yard to see if the place where she bought coal and
checkens as a little girl was still standing. To her delight, it was.
The original yard extended from Lincoln Ave all the
way to Washington and was home to a complete sawmill that also supported
locations on Lake Street and in Altadena. Prior to World War II, the business
took the name Smith-Lindsey and the volume of business dictated the need
for a railway spur onto the yard to transport greater quantities of lumber.
With the coming of the war, Smith-Lindsey suffered because of restrictions
on the avilability of lumber. It was during this time that W.A. Tirrill;
a second generation Pasadenan and general contractor came into the picture.
When a Caltech professor designed a new bombsite for
the U.S. Army Air Corps, Tirrill got the contract to box the new technology
for shipping to the Pacific and European Theaters of war. He brought the
contract to Smith-Lindsey and then bought the company outright in 1945. Wanting
the business to be more than just a lumberyard, Tirrill added hardware to
the inventory and encouraged a clientele of "do-it-yourselfers." The
newly named Lincoln Avenue Lumber and Mill, Inc. pioneered the concept of
the store that caters to homeowners unafraid to use a hammer and saw.
Lincoln Avenue Lumber and Mill became a family business
for the most familial of reasons. W.A. Tirrill's daughter Thelma had married
Jim Davee who had studied Portuguese and was preparing to move his family
to Brazil shortly after the war. Mrs. W.A. Tirrill did not want to be separated
from her grandchildren and a compromise was reached-the Davees would stay
in Southern California and Jim would go to work at the lumberyard. He put
in hard days cleaning bins and unloading lumber as he learned the business
from the ground up. Fifty years later, in 1999, Jim Davee still runs the
business and helps customers who visit 1464 Lincoln Avenue.
In the years Jim Davee has managed Lincoln Avenue Lumber
and Mill, there have been many changes in the business and area. A 1960 law
banning the burning of sawdust led to the closing of the mill. The building
of the freeway in 1968 took some of the property and half the remaining lot
was leased to Roedeffer Cement Company, which supplied concrete for the freeway
construction. Today, Robertson Ready Mix occupies that site. The 1989-90
recession and the emergence of national chain hardware stores cut into the
do-it-yourselfer market, and Lincoln Avenue Lumber and Mill began to seek
more contractor business. The yard's ability to quickly fill specific orders
at reasonable costs has led to contracts with Jet Propulsion Laboratory,
Caltech, and Pasadena Unified School District and other local firms.
By never turning their back on the do-it-yourselfers,
Lincoln Avenue Lumber and Mill has, in a way, come full circle with the burgeoning
interest in the restoration of Pasadena's older homes. Homeowners come to
1464 Lincoln for customized woodwork for windows, doors, moldings, trim,
and original siding for older homes that are not available anywhere else.
Lincoln Avenue Lumber and Mill is proud to serve westside
residents and glad they stayed in the area when other companies moved away.
The ethnic diversity of the area is reflected in the people who work at the
Lincoln Avenue yard just as it is reflected in the customers who stop by.
Davee is also proud of the company's involvement in sponsoring local Little
League, Johm Muir sports, and other West Side organizations and churches.
With roots that go way back in the area, Lincoln Avenue
Lumber and Mill is not planning on going anywhere anytime soon. Jim Davee's
son, Douglas, has been learning the business after a career as a banking
accountant. One of Pasadena's longest standing business is poised to pass
to a new generation in the Davee family in order to continue serving new
generations of Pasadenans.
This web page is based on Lincoln Avenue Lumber & Mill
Company, Inc.'s historical profile in "Historic Pasadena: An Illustrated
History" by Ann Scheid Lund. ©1999, Historical Publishing
Network, a division of Lammert Publications, Inc., San Antonio, Texas,
United States of America. Used on this web site by permission. Further
distribution or reproduction of this page in any form is prohibited. |
