GATES LUMBER CO. CELEBRATING 100 YEARS OF BUSINESS & SERVING THE MID SOUTH 1920-2020
The year 1920 was a remarkable one. The 19th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution was approved, giving women the right to vote. Prohibition began. The first commercial radio station in the United States went on the air. Memphis was home to 160,000 people. And Gates Lumber Company began buying and selling wholesale hardwood and timber. At the time, Memphis was building its reputation as the “Hardwood Capital of the World” and Gates Lumber was right in the middle of it all. After World War II, Gates was a key part of the local economy, taking rough Southern pine lumber and remanufacturing it into the sizes needed to build homes for the post-war housing boom. Fresh out of the Marine Corps, a young man named George Buzard went to work for North Memphis Lumber Co. in 1955, shortly after North Memphis purchased Gates. He started out as an hourly worker, worked his way up, and in 1985 he purchased Gates Lumber Co. Since then, the woodworking skills of the people at Gates have been on display at some of the Mid South’s best-known buildings and construction projects. In 1992, Gates was chosen to furnish the Honduras mahogany lumber, mouldings and plywood for the $50 million renovation of the Shelby County Courthouse in downtown Memphis. That work reestablished the building’s former glory and the courthouse has since been featured in many movies and television shows because of its neoclassical beauty. It has not always been easy. In March 2004, a lightning strike touched off a massive fire that burned two-thirds of the Gates plant on South Bellevue. Loyal customers stuck with the company, however, and just two days later, Bobby Buzard, George’s son, had a rented building, started restocking the inventory, and initiated the process of re-building.
50 | At Home Memphis & Mid South • July 2020