Lyman Lumber ArticleS 0,9 2.
—a3 1�yz.
Newsstand_
Price':.
company
feraving
Lyman bean.
g
M 898'
By John Mugford
It's been a long time. since a
customer first walkedinto
Lyman Lumber in Excelsior
.�
and`ordered some two-by-fours,
or. other building supplies.
In fact, it's been 94 years
since Albert Lyman opened the
doors of his new operation on -
water Street. The young man
had tired of farming and. decid=
ed to branch .out into something
else.
He bought out George Dickie=
son's lumber business: on Water
Street and opened up an opera-
tion where:ahe .Mobil: gas sta-
tion._ now sits at Third and
Fater streets.
However, as -:of Jan. -1, :people
won't Vie. wanting into the store
'tet. 337 Nater _-any
ji a need to centralize
=operations, company officials
are moving the retail - � ration ., _
haled lumber yards to: the- com-
pany's1-.o-year-old location in
Chanhassen-.-.-....
There, just off Highway 5,
Lyman. has 20 times as much
land as the 1 -acre site -in Ex
ceshor. It's at the Chanhassen
facility where the company has
increasingly stored -more and
more of the products it ships to
.customers, -who now order- sup- :
.plies instead of stopping in to to
-buy them.
empire thiat spread from Lake •
died. In fact, .Arthur was fairly
-to other Twin
ung an still living within the
young
12A—Excelsior/Shorewood Sun!Sailor—%
.Minnetonka
Mies suburbs and into
family house when his father died. '
Wisc-onson. : -
, y �
"He took over the farm,* buying out
TJYM an
That's because Albert Lyman
wasn t lust restless when it
_
his brother's share of the ropert .
y
Arthur and.his wife raised their
.
From e
came to farming, he was
family on the farm, which included -
Dtck n Dick who married
_ -
restless when it came to runn-
. g a as well. He built
in business,
. ytma . ,
Mary a arm
�in 1934, too over. t
m.:
move. to the: n site
incl the I sales Pple,
-
or bought. lumber yards in Spr-
_
tilt who now lives .in =
rY
un hen Mary,
Spng park near Mound, lived in
_ .
said Tom Lowe resident of
p -
ing Park Long Lake, Mound,
Wayzata, or
Annandale, yza
the home until - 1970. Froin there,
L
Lyman = um
« It makes sense to have our
Lake, Slkopee and in
.
they ve the Chaska area. an
lived n
then in Spring Park. Dick died in
sales pe�cle in Chanhassen,
.'*here the mates. are ship-
isconsm.
Of back then, there
course en
3anuary of 993:
Mary remembers when the
-
ped- from, : Lowe said.
As of earlier this week: com
was a need for more lumber
,
yards and they weren't very
y
:
.
Lyman farm was. honored as a
CenturyFarm at the Minnesota
.'
p�Y officials have. not -f ed
far ap4rt," Lowe said. ``.mere
State Fair. She, and -her husband
out what to do with the Ex- _
was one every few iYiiles, oras
Dick, along wth.Dick's mother:,
celsior building" or the lumber,
far as a- horse could haul
went to the fair. as -special guests.
yard, which: will be vacant ,..
after Jan. 1.
lumber. » :
the years, as
j
Over the 89 years o having
Lymans the property, the
-`live
• ::
For the time being,we plan -
on just holding ohiStOrY:
n to it " Lowe
-{.l g
transportation got better there
was no.need for so rnan y
_
": a ers of
..trees
house h as been remodeled to fit the
tunes. Bedrooms havebeen added,-
::.. .
said.
- lumber yards.
Square nails and lumber hauled
9
by cart
groves of fruit have been
removed, and an indoor bathroom
While the company is movie
Y g
the lumber operations, Lyman
l Ym _
Like other lumber -
com
'es L an -an
Yrn beg closing
;from St. Anthon Falls ox
Y
were transformed into the original
was installed.
Mary said there was.a time when
:
. officials have no. plans of mov- -
•
ung the. s administrative
. the smaller operations and
began relying on sales peo le
p
home of Henry and Martha Lyman
on Galpin Boulevard north of
she and -.her husband were remodel- :
` :ing the living room and found some
:
offices from the companys t
building at Third and Morse
to sell In that were
delivered from larger
g , central
wa 5 built in 1$81:
Highway
Lyman is a household name �n
e hast.
remnants o t p
"We were going to take the
`
•
streets dust a' half a block from
locations.
�`T
Chanhassen and the name of a street
in the city. Henry Lyman was the
:a
wall.. a r off the living room. It h
P g.
the lumber yard, Lowe said.
. :,.
•
Nor will it move its small 3
-
a run a umber
operation such as a Menards or,
city's first ostmaster.
Y P • •:
He and his wife raised four sons
been papered so many times, there
were seven la ers of wallpaper. The
Y
-
operation across from the- Fire :
•
Knox, need 5 to 10 acres on
in the home: Albert, An.sen, Frank,
Best layer was a dark red paper with
Station, Lowe said.
•
The closing is taking place
•
a freeway, said Lowe, who
over 37 years with Lyman has
and Arthur. Albert started Ly titan
Lumber, a prominent business in .
:big medallion :Under that, thatwall
was plastered in red terra-cotta: The
rather quietly. Only a small,
•
worked his way up from being
g
Chanhassen .There. were four
boys had stamped their Warnes in the
typewritten note on the doors' r
the Water Street store indicates
«
a boxcar loader. We have onl
1. acre here in Excelsior. And
bedrooms in the home, inclu in .
g
' red men on the farm.
one for the hi
„
.plaster, she sand.
The home, now owned by Ted
the move. - `
"Any time a company with
it's- a long, skinny lot that isn't
very efficient. We couldn't
dere was also a separate entrance
for the hired men, at the back of the
and Marlene Bentz, may not ° e
inhabited by Lymans, but there rna
such a history in the town
decides to leave, it is a big
store enough lumber here.''
house.
Arthur, the youngest Lyman son,
still be remnants of the past un er-
neath the layers of history wtth�n the
event," said local historian Bob
took over the farm when his father
house:
Williams. "Lyman Lumber has
had quitea presence in this
_.
town, and I'm sure they still }
will. But it's- still something to
-
-see lumber r yard leave:"
-
Williams worked at the -
lumber -yard one summer while -
he was in college. 'Hardest _j ob
I've ever had," he said. "They_
had -me carrying ryulg concrete and -
lumber, - and. that was quite a -
workout."
Actually, when compared to
the way other lumber com-
pan have operated in recent
years, `it's quite amazing
Lyman has kept the lumber
ya rd and retail store in Ex-
"
celsior as long as it has-.
At one time, Lyman Lumber
had operations in about a dozen
locations, resembling a small