Plywood production at Buffelen Lumber Co. An employee uses a giant lathe to strip the bark off of a peeler log. The log will later be peeled into sheets of veneer used to make plywood. Plywood is sheets of veneer glued together to form a stronger material. Buffelen was one of the earliest plywood companies, beginning plywood production in 1916. Plywood boomed as an industry with the government's approval of plywood as a defense material during WWII.
Douglas Fir Plywood Association. Four men have gathered to look at a display board of process samples at the one-day conference of the Douglas Fir Plywood Association held June 10, 1946, at the Elks Temple auditorium. Some 150 leaders of the plywood industry were assembled at this conference. (T.Times, 6/11/1947, p.1)
Douglas Fir Plywood Association (Tacoma); Lumber industry--Tacoma--1940-1950; Meetings--Tacoma--1940-1950;
Plywood Research Foundation. Testing plywood with a high flame at the plywood lab. A worker is keeping record of the test results. The Plywood Research Foundation was opened in August 1944 and was funded with an initial $100,000 from subscribers from the plywood manufacturers. A separate corporation was formed. Among the explorations at the lab were overlay and surfacing treatments for plywood, studies of built-up plywood beams and other structural applications, tests of preservative treatments and water repellants. (TNT, 5/24/1944)
Plywood Research Foundation (Tacoma); Plywood; Lumber industry--Tacoma--1940-1950; Laboratories--Tacoma--1940-1950;
Douglas Fir Plywood was always being tested for durability and alternative uses. The research organization was supported by the plywood industries of Tacoma, this ensured Tacoma remaining at the top of plywood production. Interior view of Plywood Research Foundation, unidentified man is recording plywood test information, photo ordered by Douglas Fir Plywood Association (T. Times, 12/22/47, p. 10).
Lumber industry--Tacoma--1940-1950; Testing--Tacoma; Recording & registration--Tacoma; Research facilities--Tacoma; Plywood Research Foundation (Tacoma); Plywood; Douglas Fir Plywood Association (Tacoma);
Twin brothers Burrell and Murrell Rucker opened the Rucker Brothers Trucking Co. shortly after WWII. Building on the L.E. Rucker and Son Trucking Co. started by their father, they were located at 733 East 11th Street, a location they shared with the St. Paul and Tacoma Lumberyard. Although the Rucker Brothers did a lot of hauling for this lumberyard, they also had contracts with many other lumber companies. View of Rucker Brothers truck with Burrell Rucker behind the wheel; the truck is loaded with St. Paul and Tacoma lumber. This photograph was commissioned as the anchor photo in a calender the Ruckers intended to print and share with their customers. The truck had been freshly washed and "tire black" applied. Extra effort was made to whiten the lettering on the tires and cleanly bundle the load of local lumber. A decision was made by the Ruckers to superimpose the image of the truck in front of Mount Rainier. This image was ultimately printed and distributed for the Rucker Brothers calendar. Burrell Rucker died in April of 2010 at age 96. His brother, Murrell, died in January of 2011 at the age of 97. (Additional information provided by Judy Hyers, daughter of Burrell Rucker)
Douglas Fir Plywood. A man is using a forklift to stack loads of plywood in a small area in April of 1945. During the 1940's Tacoma led the nation's plywood industry. The city had five factories which turned out more than 12% of all the Douglas Fir plywood produced in the nation. (T.Times, 1/9/1946)
Sliced Forest Products, Moore dry kilns and knife. A machine used in making plywood and called a knife is in the foreground. A "peeler log" unwinds against a knife in a continuous strip of veneer which is then sent into the big Moore dry kiln where they are steamed and made ready for further processing. The kiln installed at Puget Sound Plywood in the mid-1940's was the only one of its size in the State of Washington.
St. Paul and Tacoma Lumber Company. A Rucker Brothers truck loaded with plywood is parked outside the retail yard for St. Paul and Tacoma Lumber. St. Paul and Tacoma Lumber Company bought this facility from the John Dower Lumber Company in 1942.
St. Paul & Tacoma Lumber Co. (Tacoma); Lumber industry--Tacoma--1940-1950; Trucks--Tacoma--1940-1950; Plywood;
The Defiance Mill saw line for I.W. Johnson Engineering. Definace mill was started by three brothers, the Doud Brothers, from Wisconsin in 1901 when they built a mill in Buckley, Washington. Four years later they moved to Tacoma - 22 acres on Ruston Way. In 1929 they built a gang type plant to cut 75,000 feet in 8 hours.
Douglas Fir Plywood Association. An exterior view of a building. Automobiles and a truck from the A.J. Johnson & Company are parked outside. The Tacoma skyline is in the distance.
For I.W. Johnson Engineering Company. An interior view of a sawmill near Packwood, Washington. A log, with one side already sawed off having passed through the "head-rig" of the mill, has been rotated to slice off the opposite side. Once a log had been squared it was milled into lumber.
For I.W. Johnson Engineering Company. An interior view of a sawmill near Packwood, Washington. The "head-rig", where large logs are "squared" prior to being broken down into lumber, is seen on the right. Chain, similar to that used on bicycles, is being pulled by gears. Because it has teeth on the edges, the chain is able to move lumber through the mill. (Fortune Magazine, April 1934)
A huge Douglas Fir was trucked into Tacoma, recently cut near Kosmos, in eastern Lewis County. This tree was cut by Lloyd Sword, an independent logger. View of nine foot in diameter and thirty four foot long "Peeler" log recently cut, Oregon-Washington Plywood Company will convert this log into plywood panels, plywood laborers are measuring the log, crane in background (T. Times, 5/11/48, p. 1).
Douglas Fir Plywood Association was having a plywood product and "uses" presentation at the Winthrop Hotel. Plywood was originally just uses for doors and furniture drawers, but in the 1920's builders began experimenting with plywood and using it for interior wall panels, cabinets, and eventually prefabricated houses, exterior and interior wall panels. View of three plywood businessmen standing below a "Douglas Fir Plywood The Wood of 1000 Uses" sign.
Plywood; Molded plywood; Signs (Notices); Lumber industry--Tacoma--1940-1950; Business people--Tacoma--1940-1950; Douglas Fir Plywood Association (Tacoma); Hotel Winthrop (Tacoma);
Tacoma's Douglas Fir plywood industry is divided between seven plywood factories, they employ over 1,700 employees, making this one of the largest industries in Tacoma and Western Washington. There are 43 plywood plants between Washington, Oregon and California, these plants are owned by 37 different companies, with no single firm owning more than three plants. Douglas Fir Plywood Association has really helped the plywood industry expand throughout the building and construction industries. View of DFPA representative standing behind a podium, during his "Plywood Sales Demonstration".
Plywood; Molded plywood; Signs (Notices); Lumber industry--Tacoma--1940-1950; Business people--Tacoma--1940-1950; Douglas Fir Plywood Association (Tacoma); Hotel Winthrop (Tacoma);
Plywood can be used to make furniture, houses, garages, advertising, movie theaters, boats, and thousands of other items. Douglas Fir Plywood Association ensures consumers that they are getting the finest quality plywood panels, they are continuously testing and coming up with new ideas for the use of plywood products. View of DFPA representatives using Douglas Fir plywood during his presentation.
Plywood; Molded plywood; Signs (Notices); Lumber industry--Tacoma--1940-1950; Business people--Tacoma--1940-1950; Douglas Fir Plywood Association (Tacoma); Hotel Winthrop (Tacoma);
Two workmen put down membrane over the joints where the plywood panels butt together at the Puget Sound Plywood, Inc., on August 16, 1951. They have apparently completed a good portion of the job as the dark membrane covering the numerous rows of plywood panels can be seen. Puget Sound Plywood, established in 1942, was Tacoma's first cooperative plywood plant. Photograph commissioned by Tom Sias, Douglas Fir Plywood Association.
Plywood; Lumber industry--Tacoma--1950-1960; Laborers--Tacoma; Puget Sound Plywood, Inc. (Tacoma); Douglas Fir Plywood Association (Tacoma); Cooperatives--Tacoma;
An employee of the St. Paul & Tacoma Lumber Company gestures to have piles of 20 and 40 foot long 10x10 cut lumber carefully hoisted and stacked on board a ship in the summer of 1951. Positioning the heavy lumber was crucial to maximizing the total amount of lumber shipped and to also ensure that the load would not slip. The St. Paul & Tacoma Lumber Company had utilized water transportation for many years in bringing their cut lumber to such ports as San Francisco and Alaska. St. Paul & Tacoma's lumber played an important part in rebuilding San Francisco after the massive 1906 earthquake and in the Alaskan gold rush boom. The St. Paul and Tacoma Lumber Co. was absorbed by St. Regis in the late 1950s. (A History of Pierce County, p. 11; Tree Life Hemlock, St. Paul & Tacoma lumber Co.)
St. Paul & Tacoma Lumber Co. (Tacoma); Lumber industry--Tacoma--1950-1960; Hoisting machinery;
Temporary multi-deck storage racks at plywood plant at Garibaldi, Oregon. Note conveyor belt on racks; each rack had a conveyor belt on which the thin veneer from the peelers was laid. Workers would feed veneer onto each shelf. As each rack was filled, it would be shifted so that there was always an empty rack to fill.
Finished plywood goes out for shipment by truck from the plywood plant at Garibaldi, Oregon. All plywood is carefully inspected and graded to national standards, marked as to quality and carefully packaged for shipment. In the fifties, the fir plywood industry ranked among the most important in the Pacific Northwest. In Oregon, Washington and the northern part of California, the Douglas fir grew and provided a livelihood for many thousands. The best of this fir was taken to more than 100 mills in these states and peeled into veneer from which plywood is made. Fir plywood panels were called "America's busiest building material" and business boomed after World War II.
Aerial view of the plywood plant at Garibaldi, Oregon. The log boom can be seen in the foreground. The best of the Douglas Fir from the Northwest's forests in brought into the mills to be barked, peeled, dried and coated with waterproof glue to produce plywood, America's #1 building material.
Several open containers have been built using plywood. The narrower ends have been secured with metal rods and nuts to strengthen the joints. Ordered by Douglas Fir Plywood Association.
Lumber industry--Tacoma--1950-1960; Equipment; Plywood; Douglas Fir Plywood Association (Tacoma);
A man is using a forklift to move a large number of small pieces of wood into a large vat made of plywood at West Coast Chair. The vat has been made with plywood. A lid to the vat stands open at the back. Ordered by Douglas Fir Plywood Association.
Lumber industry--Tacoma--1950-1960; Equipment; Plywood; Douglas Fir Plywood Association (Tacoma); West Coast Chair, Inc. (Tacoma);
Detail of plywood testing at St. Paul & Tacoma Lumber warehouse. Ordered by Douglas Fir Plywood Association, Dave Countryman.
Douglas Fir Plywood Association (Tacoma); Plywood; Product inspection--Tacoma; Testing--Tacoma--1950-1960; St. Paul & Tacoma Lumber Co. (Tacoma); Lumber industry--Tacoma--1950-1960;
New construction at Lakewood Center showing the use of hemlock. Additions to Lakewood Center began in May 1951. Lea, Pearson and Richards were the architects for the addition that would make room for a department store, a shoe store, candy shop and a bakery. A supermarket was to be included near a courtyard to connect with the present theater, dress shop, dining room and drug store. Ordered by St. Paul & Tacoma Lumber, Cordy Wagner. (TNT, 5/20/1951, p.C-15)
Lumber industry--Tacoma--1950-1960; St. Paul & Tacoma Lumber Co. (Tacoma); Building construction--Lakewood--1950-1960; Lakewood Community Center (Lakewood); Progress photographs; Shopping centers--Lakewood--1950-1960;
New construction at Lakewood Center showing use the of hemlock. This new addition to Lakewood Center was part of the long-range program to expand the center which was started in 1937. Ordered by St. Paul & Tacoma Lumber, Cordy Wagner. (TNT 5/20/1951, p.C-15)
Lumber industry--Tacoma--1950-1960; St. Paul & Tacoma Lumber Co. (Tacoma); Building construction--Lakewood--1950-1960; Lakewood Community Center (Lakewood); Shopping centers--Lakewood--1950-1960;
Two men are loading a sheet of plywood into one of Liberty Lumber Company's trucks along side the building. A large sign hanging out front announces that the lumber yard is, "Open for Business". They advertise General Paints with a sign over the store where they also carry metal garbage cans, screen doors, gardening tools, trellises and a garden arch. Neon letters spell out that, "We Cut Glass". The building materials company was owned by Kenneth Heiman.
Liberty Lumber Co. (Tacoma); Hardware stores--Tacoma; Building materials; Electric signs--Tacoma--1950-1960;
Tacoma Fire Station No. 16 under construction. Workers install roof sheathing by Douglas Fir Plywood Association. This area by the Narrows Bridge was just being developed. The fire station was built at a cost of $24,000 and dedicated on July 20, 1952. The fire station had a 12 man crew and one engine and provided fire protection to the Highlands district, from Stevens St. to the Narrows bridge, and University Place. This building was razed and replaced in 1999.
Plywood industry--Tacoma--1950-1960; Carpentry--Tacoma--1950-1960; Construction--Tacoma--1950-1960; Fire stations--Tacoma; Tacoma Fire Department, Fire Station No. 16 (Tacoma);
Plywood veneer production at the Bellingham Plywood Company. After the veneer is cut from the peeler log and the moisture content is regulated, the veneer is again graded. At the glue spreader, the cross-banding veneer is covered with an even coat of glue and sheets are assembled with alternate dry veneer in three, five and seven ply panels. Workers pictured above are building up the layers of plywood. Man to the far right is the glue machine operator, a highly skilled position. ("The Plywood Age" by Robert M. Cour)
