Dunn
Lumber is located near Lake Union. When you're outside around the big blue building,
you see The University Bridge, you can smell the seawater, and see
bicyclers and walkers on the Burke-Gilman Trail. But this wasn't how the area
looked when Dunn Lumber was built in 1907. The area had small houses cramped
up together. The neighborhoods were probably very small back then. There was
no University Bridge and the trail was a railroad.
Rob Dunn: It was an old building with a lot of old sheds. In those days there weren't forklifts...
Hundreds of delivery trucks bring wood to the warehouse every week and the wood is stacked very neatly by types of wood and is stored in the warehouse and in the yard across the street. There was sawdust everywhere.
The
Dunn Lumber Company has been in Wallingford for almost 100 years. In that time,
they have gone through many changes and seen the evolution of the Wallingford
community throughout its history. They have been successful for many reasons.
They have employees who have worked for over 20 years; they are experienced
and they know what the customers need. Of course, they need to have good quality
goods.
There have been many changes in the lumber industry that Dunn Lumber has been sensitive and flexible enough to keep up with.
Rob Dunn: We really pride ourselves on having long term employees...
In the summer of 1938, a huge fire destroyed everything at Dunn Lumber. Luckily, they had enough insurance money to recover the things they lost and restart the company.
Rob Dunn: There was a fire in the mid-20's...
As the community of Wallingford changed, Dunn Lumber was able to evolve its service to meet the needs of the community. For instance, in the early years of the company, they focused on new construction of houses. After WWII, when an emerging middle class community moved into Wallingford the company devoted itself to providing resources for customers to renovate their houses.
In the 90s there was a lot of protest against big corporations like Home Depot and Lowes for cutting down old growth forests. Rob Dunn will now tell you how they were able to avoid conflict during this time:
Rob Dunn: If you came in and you wanted to build something and you said you didn't want to use lumber for old growth forest...
Dunn Lumber has been an independent family business for three generations. It is a great company because they help the Wallingford community in many ways.
Rob Dunn: One of our favorite things to support is the Wallingford Boys and Girls Club...
We hope that Dunn Lumber will continue to serve the Wallingford community into the next century.