Category:Trexler Lumber Company, Allentown, Pennsylvania

Trexler Lumber Company was founded in 1856 by Edwin W. Trexler when he purchased an interest in the Dresher & Weaver lumber yard, which was located on the southwest corner of 9th and Hamilton Streets. From this location, the company moved to 943 Hamilton Street, and the property extended north to Linden Street for the storage of cut lumber. The firm was first known as Trexler & Bro, later Trexler & Weaver and in 1879 E W Trexler & Son and finally E W Trexler & Sons. As the city grew and prospered, it again moved in 1904 to 16th and Gordon Streets.

Edwin Trexler came to Allentown from Easton where he had been a dry goods merchant. He was told by his physician to get interested in outside work, so he purchased the lumber company partnership. Following his death, Harry C. Trwxler became the sole owner of the lumber company. Early in the 1900s, the company expanded to become one of the largest of its kind in the eastern United States. At one time, the lumber yard, located on 17th Street extended from Allen Street south to Gordon Street, and east to 16th. It had the largest single roof lumber shed in the world, and carried in stock over 30 million feet of lumber. It had its own railroad dock, connected to the West Loop of the Lehigh Railroad spur for deliveries and shipments.

Trexler Lumber was one of the first concerns to install a modern fleet of trucks and other equipment for the efficient handling of lumber and the manufacturing of special custom-built mill work. It also sold a full line of hardware and paints and supplies, not only material, but worked closely with various contractors as well as builders for assistance in home remodeling and construction. A 1937 ad for Trexler Lumber noted that it was one of the largest lumber yards of its kind in the eastern United States. Its roofed lumber shed was called the largest of its kind in the world.

It began to sell off its lumber yard in the 1960s, selling the block-sized parcel between Allen and Liberty, Seventeenth to Sixteenth streets in 1961. It's headquarters building at 16th Gordon was purchased in 1966 by Allentown Hospital and was torn to expand its parking lots.

In July 1972, most of Trexler Lumber was liquidated in a Sheriff's sale, with a small lumber storage yard on Liberty Street, between 16th and 17th Street remaining. On March 31st, 1973, the lumber storage yard was destroyed in one of the largest fires in Allentown's history. The fire destroyed the yard, as well as the C.Y. Shelly & Brothers hardware buisness. At the time of the fire, the lumber yard was about to go out of business. The previous November the First National Bank of Allentown had foreclosed on its mortgage.

Photos from the next day showed a smoking lot of ruined buildings and wood. On Sept. 25, 1973, the Charles Kline Lodge of Allentown's B'nai B'rith purchased for $70,000 the former lumber yard for the construction of what are now the B'nai B'rith Apartments. Today, the former lumber yard also contains several medical office buildings, a hospice, a large supermarket, various strip shopping center businesses and a small general office building.