Root Lumber Company Celebrating 100 Years in Business

Not many businesses can say they’ve been in operation for 100 years, but that is what Root Lumber Company in Kenton is celebrating in 2021.

Chip Root said the business started in 1921 with two locations, “We had a location in Ada and we had a location obviously in Kenton where we are now. Sometime in the early years, the Ada location was sold out to the other partner, which was Mr. King, and we maintained control of the Kenton location and have ever since. Started my great grandfather. My grandfather then took it over and my father obviously was next in line, and I’ve been in control for about two years now, back in 2019.”

He said his father is still in the business, and it’s nice to have him around every day, but  how does a business stay in operation that long?, “The biggest thing is we have a great group of employees and we live in a great county. We’ve got great customers that have been repeat customers for years.”

To show their appreciation, the store is having an open house Saturday July 10 to celebrate the milestone, “We’ll be open for business from 7:30 to 2, which is a little bit of an extended time frame. We’ll have some food from 11 to 2 o’clock provided by 101 Smokehouse out of Dunkirk. We’re happy to host them out front, so we invite everybody to come down. We have some door prizes and some giveaways, and just come say hi, see some of the memorabilia that we’ve saved over the last 100 years, and look at what lumber prices were back in the 20’s, 30’s, 40’s and maybe as recent as two years ago compared to what they are today.”

Root Lumber Company is located at 202 South Market Street in Kenton.