Tehachapi Lumber Company: closing a chapter in Tehachapi life
Related Photos
The Small family: from left are son Gary, his wife Lynn and their son Shawn; father Al and mother Winnie; and son Bob and his wife Joyce.
The Tehachapi Lumber Co. Model T truck was once a fixture in Mountain Festival parades.
This photo from a 1957 Tomahawk, the Tehachapi High School yearbook, shows how the building looked when there were still windows facing Tehachapi Boulevard.
Tehachapi Lumber Company has been one of the anchors of downtown Tehachapi for many decades.
Tehachapi Lumber Company is closing after more than 65 years in business. Shown from left are Vic Elms, Joan Grantham, co-owner Wanda Vandeventer, and Tammy Altic.
An era is ending in Downtown Tehachapi with the imminent closing of one of the town’s anchoring stores: Tehachapi Lumber Company is going out of business after many decades of providing building materials, hardware and other supplies to area residents.
Located at 228 West Tehachapi Boulevard, in one of the largest, oldest buildings in downtown, the business made it through World War II and the 1952 Tehachapi earthquake but it couldn’t survive the combination of factors that has closed many American businesses in the past four years.
“There wasn’t a single cause, it was several different issues, but by far the biggest reason is the housing downturn,” explained store co-owner Wanda Vandeventer. “Most of our business came from contractors, and the housing market dropped off a cliff.”
The opening of a big box store with a bigger selection and longer hours didn’t help, but even after the chain store opened, most builders still got their materials from Tehachapi Lumber and there just hasn’t been much building in Tehachapi since 2008. You can drive all around the area and you seldom see the bright bare color of new lumber that indicates a construction project underway.
Several years ago, Tehachapi Lumber was selected as a Tehachapi “Business of the Year,” and the company was still thriving with about 35 full-time employees. Now, there are only two: Wanda, and longtime staff member Vic Elms, who has been there since 1985. They have been running the business with help from a handful of part-time employees. Ken Vandeventer, Wanda’s husband, took advantage of the housing slump to complete a business degree.
“Ken went back to college to get his degree, but we’re not sure yet what we’ll do in the long term,” Wanda explained. “There will be a new direction in our lives.” Ken and Wanda bought Tehachapi Lumber from the Small family in June of 2005.
Allan and Winifred Small came to Tehachapi in 1950, and bought Tehachapi Lumber from the Lang brothers, Al and Heavy, shortly afterward. Al and Winnie raised their two boys, Gary and Bob, around the business and they eventually owned it themselves.
For decades, most of the houses built in the Tehachapi area included at least some materials from Tehachapi Lumber, from the foundation up: a batch plant across from the store provided the concrete for many of the house slabs. Then the successive levels of plumbing, framing lumber, wiring and electrical hardware, plywood sheeting, insulation, sheet rock, paint, roofing materials and the rest was supplied by Tehachapi Lumber, which in later years was affiliated with Ace Hardware.
There was substantial expertise and institutional knowledge at Tehachapi Lumber. Al Small himself had built quality homes in the Tehachapi area, and with Gary and Bob growing up working at the store, there was wealth of Tehachapi-specific construction experience represented there. As a little boy, I would go in there with my Uncle Hank when he was making repairs at our place, and the Smalls would often remember what materials he had purchased originally and be able to readily show him what he needed. Knowledgeable salespeople, not just aisle-pointers (“Plumbing? Try aisle 5,”) were standard at Tehachapi Lumber.
And this is another truism about Tehachapi Lumber that must be pointed out: anyone could get an account there. There was no credit check or lengthy form to fill out. You walked in, gave them your name and mailing address, and that was it. You had your own account. Al Small and his sons would give you the benefit of the doubt — unless you proved otherwise, your credit was good with them.
Pat Gracey remembers when her late husband retired from a career in the Marine Corp and they returned to Tehachapi 35 years ago.
“Doyle went into Tehachapi Lumber to get something, and all he had were blank counter checks from the bank because we hadn’t gotten the new ones with our names on them yet,” Pat recalled. “They told him they couldn’t accept the check, but they’d be happy to open an account for him and mail him a bill. He came home surprised that they would just give him an account without knowing him at all. The same account is still open to this day.”
This policy allowed people to complete their homes or make needed repairs even if they didn’t yet have the money. I know Tehachapi Lumber helped us with roofing materials after a storm, or plumbing supplies after a hard freeze had broken pipes when we didn’t have the money to pay at the time. “No problem, we’ll just put it on your account, Henry,” Bob Small would say. I’ve never had that experience in a corporate store.
In addition to supplying hardware and building materials and being one of the downtown’s largest employers, for many years Tehachapi Lumber printed the area’s only community phone book and provided it free to anyone who came in. Printed by Johnson Printing on good quality paper with no advertising, the Tehachapi Lumber phone book was eagerly snapped up by locals and everyone had a copy by their phone. When printing one each year became too much of an undertaking, the Tehachapi News took over and started publishing Tehachapi’s Own Phone (TOP) Book.
As yet there are no specific plans for the building, which is owned by Shawn and Stacey Small, the children of Lynn Small and the late Gary Small, who passed away in 1992. The building is a very old one that once housed Tehachapi’s first bowling alley, and the first of 10 historical murals in the area was painted on the west side of the structure.
It is with regret that I consider the closing of a business that for so long has been an important part of the fabric of Tehachapi — and in my own life, since I have been going in there continually for more than 40 years. Wanda, a very calm and competent person who was raised in Oregon, is philosophical: “We didn’t want this to happen, of course, but with so little building going on, we couldn’t keep it open. It’s time.
There’s a season for everything. We’ll see what God has planned for our future. I’m at peace.”
Have a good week.
JON HAMMOND has written for the Tehachapi News for more than 30 years. Send e-mail to: tehachapimtnlover@gmail.com
